Banana Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting

After reading one of my healthy weight watchers recipes and then checking my facebook and seeing a photo of the extremely unhealthy cupcakes I made for my husband's birthday, my cousin challenged me to create a delicious cupcake that was low in points. I was going to wait until the weekend so that I had more time to play around with ingredients, but I was eager to get started and came up with this recipe this morning. It's obviously not the Coffee Heath Crunch Cupcake (recipe coming soon!) seen below, but I take it as a big compliment that my picky three year old who usually licks the frosting off cupcakes and throws the rest away ate the whole thing!

Banana Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting (3 points plus)
Recipe makes 24 cupcakes

Banana Cupcakes (serving size one cupcake, 2 points plus)
2 cups all-purpose unbleached white flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp butter, softened
1/3 cup plain, nonfat Greek yogurt
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup fat free egg substitute (equivalent of 3 eggs)
2 tbsp fat free milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 ripe bananas, mashed

1. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.
2. Blend butter and yogurt in the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment for 2 minutes.
3. Add sugar to the bowl and beat until well blended.
4. Beat in eggs 1/4 cup at a time, mixing until incorporated. 
5. Add in milk and vanilla.
6. Stir in half of the flour mixture, then the bananas.
7. Finally, add the last of the flour mixture and stir until just incorporated.
8. Divide evenly into 24 cupcakes liners, fill each approximately 2/3.
9. Bake for 18-22 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Nutella Frosting (serving size ~1 tbsp, 1 point plus)

4 tbsp butter, softened

2 tbsp nutella

3/4 cup confectioner's sugar

1-2 tsp fat free milk

1. Using hand mixer, beat butter and nutella together until smooth.
2. Add confectioner's sugar 1/4 cup at a time beating until fully incorporated after each addition.
3. Finally, add milk by 1/2tsp until desired consistency is reached (I used the full 2 tsp).

*After I took my photos I saw one of the heath cupcakes I made for my husband and quickly calculated the points and realized you can top each cupcake with 1 tsp crushed heath without increasing the points value!*

The cupcake that started it all...