What You Need To Make Hummingbird Cupcakes

Almond Flour – I chose almond flour as the base of these cupcakes for two reasons. One, it’s grain-free, making these cupcakes so light and healthy that you could literally eat them for breakfast if you wanted to. And two, it yields a soft, crumbly cupcake that doesn’t fall apart when bitten into, but also isn’t too dense.

Coconut Sugar – Just a 1/2 cup of coconut sugar is all you need in these cupcakes! This is what I mean by they’re sweet, but not too sweet. Coconut sugar is lower on the glycemic index than the usual white sugar. It also contains many more vitamins and minerals than most other sugars. If you don’t have coconut sugar, you can either use brown sugar, cane sugar, or white sugar instead.

Mashed Bananas – You won’t find a single hummingbird recipe without mashed bananas in it. In conjunction with the pineapple and coconut, a little banana is truly magnificent. It adds a touch of sweetness and incredible flavor. You can use 1 cup of apple sauce instead, if you’d like.

Crushed Pineapple – Like I said earlier, crushed pineapple is a main ingredient in these hummingbird cupcakes. I buy canned crushed pineapple and rinse out the liquid before using in this recipe. Though you can use finely chopped fresh pineapple instead.

Shredded Coconut – Similar to the crushed pineapple, these wouldn’t be hummingbird cupcakes without a little coconut. My one thing when baking with coconut is to make sure it is unsweetened. Our cupcakes are sweet enough, we don’t need the coconut adding to that.

Adjust This Recipe To Your Dietary Needs

Make it Paleo – Leave out the dairy-free cream cheese frosting and you’ll have yourself delicious little paleo hummingbird muffins!

Make it Vegan – Use your favorite egg-substitute in place of the eggs in this recipe. I have not tested this recipe using flax eggs, though I can image that it will yield less-fluffy but still tasty cupcakes.

Make it Sugar-Free – Leave out the frosting and sub 1/2 cup of your favorite sugar-free sweetener for the coconut sugar. You can also leave out the coconut sugar altogether, if you’d like!

Hummingbird Cupcakes (GF/DF)

4 from 3 votes

Recipe by Samantha Russo Course: DessertCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Intermediate

Servings

cupcakes

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Total time

minutes

Ingredients

2 Cups Almond Flour, see NOTES
1/2 Cup Coconut Sugar
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil, melted, see NOTES
1 Cup Mashed Banana, about 2 bananas
2 Eggs, see NOTES
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 Cup Crushed Pineapple, drained
1/2 Cup Shredded Coconut, unsweetened
For the cream cheese frosting:
1/2 Cup Dairy-Free Cream Cheese
1/4 Cup Dairy-Free Butter, softened
2 Cups Powdered Sugar
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit and line a cupcake tin with 12 cupcake liners.
In a large bowl, mix together the almond flour, coconut sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon.
In a small bowl, mix together the coconut oil, mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla extract.
Add the wet ingredients, crushed pineapple, and shredded coconut into the dry ingredients and mix to combine.
Fill each cupcake liner with 1/4 cup of batter and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.
Transfer cupcakes to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Make the frosting by adding all ingredients to a bowl and beating with either a hand or stand mixer until combined. Dollop frosting onto cooled cupcakes and enjoy!

Notes

Almond Flour: Be sure to use almond flour, not almond meal.
Coconut Oil: You can use 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil or melted butter instead.
Eggs: I like to remove my eggs from the fridge a couple hours before baking. If your eggs are too cold when added to the batter, they might cause your coconut oil to re-harden.

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This gluten-free and dairy-free banana bread is truly the best EVER! Fool your friends and family with this recipe that tastes just like the real thing. Toast up a thick slice of this ultimate gluten-free and dairy-free banana bread, then top it with your favorite non-dairy butter for a heavenly snack!

Gluten-free and dairy-free banana bread with a slice removed.

Not sure why, but I hated banana bread as a kid. Though I started to enjoy it a few years ago. And well, I quickly went from hating it, to enjoying it, to being totally obsessed with it. And I am specifically obsessed with this ultimate gluten-free and dairy-free banana bread recipe. It’s light, fluffy, not too sweet, and yields the perfect amount of that yummy banana flavor. I love this recipe so much that I often use this trick to ripen all of my bananas, because I’m way too impatient to wait for them to ripen on their own.

Lightly toasted, smeared in dairy-free butter, dairy-free cream cheese, and a drizzle of honey is the my preferred method of enjoying this ultimate gluten-free and dairy-free banana bread. I also love enjoying it as an afternoon snack with a big ole’ dollop of crunchy almond butter on top. It’s also totally delicious on its own! I recommend slicing it and then storing it in the fridge, to maintain its freshness. I also recommend doubling this batch and throwing a few slices in the freezer for a later date. Simply remove from the freezer, toast until defrosted and enjoy!

What You Need To Make Ultimate Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Banana Bread

Gluten-Free Flour – I use and love Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free 1:1 Baking Flour, it has truly never failed me. Though if you’re not gluten-free, you can easily sub all purpose flour for the gluten-free flour in this recipe.

Cinnamon – While developing this recipe, I realized that no other banana bread recipes out there include cinnamon. To me, adding cinnamon was a no-brainer. I honestly thought it was one of those signature banana bread ingredients. When I realized no one else includes it in their recipes, I tried making this recipe without it. Oh man, never doing that again! Cinnamon adds incredible flavor and aroma to this recipe that it simply, to die for.

Mashed Banana – Make sure your bananas are SUPER ripe for this recipe. The more ripe your bananas are, the softer and sweeter they’ll be in this recipe. If you don’t have any ripe bananas but want to make this banana bread, use this trick! I use the quickly-ripen banana method often and can attest to its success. Now as far as mashing goes, remove the bananas from their peel, place them in a bowl and press down on them with the back of a fork. You’ll want to mash your bananas until you achieve a consistency similar to apple sauce. Measure out the 1 and 1/2 cups of banana once they are completely smooth.

Eggs – Remove your eggs from the fridge an hour or two before using them in this recipe. Room temperature eggs are always ideal in baking. If your eggs are too cold when mixed into the batter, they may cause the melted butter or oil you used to harden.

Non-Dairy Milk – Any non-dairy milk will work in this recipe. I used a homemade almond milk and has great results. If you’re not dairy-free, you can easily swap the non-dairy milk with cow’s milk.

Adjust This Recipe To Your Dietary Needs

Make it Vegan: Use two flax eggs or your favorite egg-substitute in place of the flax eggs in this recipe. Expect your bread to be slightly more dense than the one pictured, but still delicious!
Add Gluten: Use all purpose flour instead of gluten-free flour in this recipe.
Add Dairy: Use melted butter instead of coconut oil and cow’s milk instead of non-dairy milk in this recipe.

Ultimate Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Banana Bread

0 from 0 votes

Recipe by Samantha Russo Course: SnacksCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

slices

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Total time

hour