The inspiration for this post is a bit convoluted. I was originally looking for some way to incorporate wet walnuts into a recipe for my dad. My dad is a huge fan of wet walnuts and he just had surgery so I wanted to make him a little pick-me-up treat. Wet walnuts are usually a topping on ice cream so I thought it would be fun to make a spin on a banana split in cupcake form. Later, I found out that Banana Splits do not traditionally even have wet walnuts as a topping. Oh well!
I used a banana cupcake recipe from Martha Stewart and filled each cupcake with homemade whipped cream. I then topped 1/3 of the cupcakes with vanilla frosting, 1/3 with strawberry frosting, and 1/3 with chocolate frosting. I topped them all off with sprinkles, wet walnuts, and maraschino cherries!
These are sugar overload so despite the photos showing all 3 types, stick to one cupcake at a time 🙂
INGREDIENTS:
Banana Cupcakes (makes 12 cupcakes):
- 1 ½ cups cake flour
- ¾ cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup butter (1 stick) melted
- 4 ripe bananas, mashed
- 2 eggs
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Whipped Cream Filling
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
Frosting
- 1 ½ cups butter, softened
- 6 cups powdered sugar, plus more if needed
- 6 tablespoons heavy cream, plus more if needed
- ½ tablespoon vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
- ¼ cup strawberry jam
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
Wet Walnuts
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/4 cup agave
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
Toppings
- Maraschino cherries
- Wet walnuts
- Rainbow sprinkles