Mother's Day For MJ

Happy Mother's Day! I'm surrounded by many lovely mothers so not being one myself (believe me I can wait!) is fine by me. Shout out to the many moms in my life (MJ, Ashley, Lauren, Nana, Grammy), I wish you a splendid day filled with coffee, breakfast, and maybe these delicious cupcakes! Those who know me know I call my mom MJ, and have since High School. It stands for Mama Jane, which has no relevance to her actual name of Diane, but it stuck! My friends now know her as MJ, and you do as well!
 I've seen these cupcakes on countless websites, and always sounded like an interesting cake to make, and after seeing it on one of my favorite food site Skinny Taste, I decided it was time to try it! They're called hummingbird cakes, and are much like a carrot cake, but uses crushed pineapple and mashed bananas instead of carrots. My mom loves flowers and birds alike, so I felt these were very fitting for a Mom day treat. I changed the original recipe a bit to fit my taste, and also cut it in half since 2 dozen cupcakes were a bit excessive.

Hummingbird Cupcakes
adapted from Skinny Taste, makes 1 dozen


Cupcakes:
3/4 cup White whole wheat flour
1/3 cup Sugar
1 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Ginger
1 T oil
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla
1 cup Mashed banana (about 2 medium bananas)
8 oz can Crushed Pineapple, drained
1/4 cup Chopped walnuts


Frosting:
3 oz Reduced-fat Cream cheese
1/3 cup Powdered Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
1 drop green, 1 drop yellow food coloring


Start by preheating your oven to 350, and coating a muffin tin with non-stick spray, or lining with cupcake liners.

Next, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and spices in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, oil, and vanilla. Add the pineapple, banana, and walnuts.

Add the wet mixture into the dry, and stir until fully combined. Transfer the mixture to the muffin pan, and bake for about 12 minutes, rotate the pan and bake another 12 minutes or until fully baked.

Let the cupcakes cool for about 10 minutes in the pan then remove and cool on a wire rack.

While the cupcakes cool, time to make the frosting!  This is when the cheaper bars of cream cheese come in handy since they have the measurements right on the package as opposed to trying to measure 3 oz from a tub. If that is the case 3 oz is 6 Tablespoons. Simply combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl, and mix with an electric mixer until fully combined.

When the cupcakes are fully cool, top each with the frosting. I made these a shade of green to go with the flower theme. A trick my dad that always taught me when frosting cakes was to dip the knife in a cup of warm water then the frosting to make it spread evenly. I topped each with a nice buttercup and flowers and decorative sprinkles.

Enjoy the day, and sink your teeth into these decadently nutritious cupcakes! Each has about 140 calories, and added nutrition from the whole wheat flour. Guilt-free for Mom-my! (Yes I'm THAT cheezy!)