Banana Pudding Cupcakes — Soft, Golden & Filled with Creamy Pudding

My youngest asked for “the cupcakes with the surprise inside” for the third year in a row. That’s how I knew this recipe had officially earned its place in our kitchen.

These banana pudding cupcakes start with a soft, naturally sweet banana batter — made with ripe bananas, sour cream, and buttermilk for a mie that’s genuinely tender. Then each cupcake gets filled with creamy homemade banana pudding, and topped with a silky cream cheese frosting that tastes like the best banana pudding you’ve ever had, but in frosting form. Every single bite has something going on.

If you love our creamy homemade banana pudding, you’re going to love what happens when it lives inside a cupcake.

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Why You’ll Love These Banana Pudding Cupcakes

• A real pudding filling. Not a swirl on top — actual creamy banana pudding piped inside each cupcake. Every bite gets that surprise.
• Soft, tender crumb every time. The sour cream and buttermilk work together to keep the batter moist from the inside out — no dry cupcakes here.
• From scratch, no cake mix needed. The batter comes together in one bowl with ingredients you already have. Ripe bananas do most of the heavy lifting.
• Cream cheese frosting that tastes like banana pudding. Cinnamon, vanilla, a little tang — it makes the whole thing feel like a dessert within a dessert.
• Make-ahead friendly. The cupcakes, the filling, and the frosting can all be prepped a day ahead. Morning-of assembly takes under 10 minutes.

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Ingredients & Notes

Everything here is a pantry staple — the only thing you need to plan for is making sure your bananas are ripe enough. The browner, the better.

For the Banana Cupcakes

Ripe bananas (1¼ cups / 328g — about 2 to 3 large). This is where all the natural sweetness comes from. You want bananas with plenty of brown spots. If yours are still mostly yellow, roast them whole in their skin at 350°F (175°C) for 10–15 minutes until the skin turns black — it concentrates the sugars instantly and makes them just as good as a week-old ripe banana.

All-purpose flour (2 cups / 240g). Standard AP flour works perfectly here. I haven’t tested it with bread flour — don’t swap.

Unsalted butter (½ cup / 113g, room temperature). Room temp is not optional. Cold butter won’t cream properly and you’ll end up with a dense batter. Set it out 1 hour before baking.

Light brown sugar (½ cup / 110g) + granulated white sugar (½ cup / 100g). The combination matters. Brown sugar adds moisture and a warm caramel note; white sugar gives structure. Don’t swap one for the other entirely.

Eggs, Dairy & Leavening

Large eggs (2, room temperature). Same rule as the butter — room temp eggs incorporate much more evenly. Drop them in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes if you forgot to set them out.

Sour cream (¼ cup / 60g). This is the secret to the tender crumb. The mild acidity of sour cream reacts with the baking soda to help the cupcakes rise, and it weakens gluten bonds just enough to keep the texture soft and melt-in-your-mouth. Full-fat only — low-fat sour cream will make the batter too loose.

Whole buttermilk (½ cup / 120ml). Buttermilk adds lift and a very subtle tang that balances the sweetness of the banana. No buttermilk? Add 1 teaspoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to ½ cup of whole milk, stir, and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Baking soda (1 tsp), ground cinnamon (1 tsp), salt (½ tsp), pure vanilla extract (1 tsp). The cinnamon is warm, not dominant — it rounds out the banana flavor without tasting like a snickerdoodle.

For the Banana Pudding Filling

Use our creamy homemade banana pudding — roughly 1 full cup is enough to fill 17–18 cupcakes generously. Make it the day before and keep it refrigerated. It needs to be cold and set before you can pipe it cleanly.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

Unsalted butter (½ cup / 113g) + cream cheese (8oz / 226g, brick-style, softened). Brick-style cream cheese only — the spreadable kind in tubs has too much water content and the frosting will be runny. Both need to be soft before you start beating.

Powdered sugar (3 cups / 360g). Add it gradually at low speed or you’ll be wearing it.

Ground cinnamon (¼ tsp), salt (⅛ tsp), pure vanilla extract (1 tsp). That pinch of salt and touch of cinnamon in the frosting are what make it taste like banana pudding rather than plain cream cheese frosting.

Garnish. Dehydrated banana chips are my go-to — they hold up without browning. Fresh banana slices look beautiful but will oxidize within a couple of hours, so use them only if serving immediately.

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How to Make Banana Pudding Cupcakes

This recipe moves quickly once everything is at room temperature. Read through the steps once before you start — the alternating method for the dry ingredients and buttermilk sounds more complicated than it is.

Step 1 — Prep Your Bananas and Oven

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C) and line two standard muffin tins with cupcake liners.

Mash your ripe bananas with a fork until smooth — a few small lumps are fine and will disappear during baking. You need exactly 1¼ cups (328g). If your bananas aren’t ripe enough, roast them unpeeled on a baking sheet at 350°F for 10–15 minutes until the skin turns completely black. Let them cool fully before mashing.

Step 2 — Whisk the Dry Ingredients

Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk for 30 seconds to distribute everything evenly. Set aside.

Step 3 — Cream the Butter and Sugars

Beat the room-temperature butter with the brown sugar and granulated sugar in a large bowl using a hand mixer or stand mixer on medium speed. Mix for 3 full minutes — you want the mixture to turn pale, almost fluffy, and noticeably lighter in color. Don’t rush this step. The air you build in here is what gives the cupcakes their lift.

The butter mixture should look almost like thick whipped cream at this point.

Step 4 — Add the Eggs, Banana, Sour Cream and Vanilla

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition — about 30 seconds per egg. Mix in the mashed bananas and sour cream until combined. Finish with the vanilla extract and mix for 10 more seconds. The batter will look slightly curdled at this point — that’s normal and it will come together once the flour goes in.

Step 5 — Alternate Flour and Buttermilk

Add the dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk in 2 additions, following this order:

1. ⅓ dry ingredients → mix on low until just combined
2. Half the buttermilk → mix on low
3. ⅓ dry ingredients → mix on low
4. Remaining buttermilk → mix on low
5. Final ⅓ dry ingredients → mix on low until just combined

Stop as soon as no dry streaks remain. Overmixing develops gluten and makes cupcakes tough — a few faint lumps in the batter are your friend.

Step 6 — Fill and Bake

Scoop the batter into the lined muffin cups, filling each one about ¾ full — roughly ¼ cup of batter per cupcake. An ice cream scoop makes this fast and keeps the cupcakes even.

Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 18–20 minutes. The tops should spring back when lightly pressed, and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean or with just a few moist crumbs.

Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before filling or frosting — at least 45 minutes. Filling warm cupcakes will melt the pudding.

The cupcakes look done when they come out of the oven, but they finish setting as they cool — give them time.

Step 7 — Make the Cream Cheese Frosting

Beat the softened butter and cream cheese together on medium speed for 2 minutes until completely smooth and lump-free. Add the salt and cinnamon, and mix for 30 seconds.

Add the powdered sugar gradually — about ½ cup at a time — starting on low speed. Once all the sugar is incorporated, add the vanilla and increase to medium-high. Beat for 2 minutes until the frosting is silky, airy, and holds its shape. It should be thick enough to pipe without drooping.

If the frosting feels too soft, refrigerate it for 15 minutes before piping.

Step 8 — How to Fill Cupcakes with Pudding

This is the step people feel nervous about — don’t be. It takes about 30 seconds per cupcake once you get the hang of it.

Using a cupcake corer or a small paring knife, cut a cylinder from the center of each cooled cupcake — about ¾ inch wide and ¾ inch deep. Don’t go all the way to the bottom or the filling will leak out.

Fill a piping bag (or a zip-lock bag with the corner snipped) with the cold, set banana pudding. Pipe the filling into each hole until it’s level with the top of the cupcake.

Frost immediately over the filled hole — the frosting seals the pudding inside.

Don’t toss the little cake plugs you remove — my kids eat them straight off the tray.

Step 9 — Frost and Garnish

Transfer the frosting to a piping bag fitted with a large star tip (1M or 2D both work beautifully). Pipe a generous swirl starting from the outside edge, working inward and finishing with a small peak in the center.

Place one dehydrated banana chip on top of each cupcake, pressing it gently into the frosting so it stands upright at a slight angle.

Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes before serving to let everything set and firm up.

At this point, they look like bakery cupcakes. My kids always think I ordered them.

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Lily’s Tips for the Best Banana Pudding Cupcakes

Getting these right comes down to a few details that make a real difference.

Use the ripest bananas you can find. “The riper your bananas, the less sugar you’ll need — nature does the sweetening for you.” Brown-spotted bananas contain up to 80% more natural sugar than yellow ones, which means more flavor with the same amount of effort.

Don’t skip the room-temperature ingredients. Butter, eggs, sour cream, buttermilk — all of them. Cold ingredients don’t emulsify properly and you’ll end up with a lumpy, uneven batter that bakes unevenly.

Make the pudding filling the day before. Cold, fully-set pudding is easy to pipe cleanly. Warm or loose pudding turns into a mess the moment it hits the cupcake. Overnight in the fridge is ideal.

Don’t overfill the cupcake liner. ¾ full is the rule. More than that and the batter will overflow and give you flat, mushroom-shaped tops instead of the pretty dome you want.

The frosting needs to be cold to pipe well. If your kitchen is warm or you beat the frosting for a long time, it might soften. Refrigerate it for 15 minutes before piping and it will behave perfectly.

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Variations

These cupcakes are a blank canvas once you have the base batter and the filling technique down. Here are the directions I’ve tested in my kitchen.

Banana Pudding Cupcakes with Buttercream Only

Skip the cream cheese and make a pure American vanilla buttercream instead — swap the 8oz cream cheese for an additional ½ cup (113g) of unsalted butter. Keep everything else the same. The frosting will be sweeter and lighter in color. This version holds up better at room temperature for outdoor parties or when you know they’ll be sitting out for a while.

If you want the same flavor in a simpler format, try our unfilled banana cupcakes with buttercream — same soft banana base, no coring required.

Vanilla Pudding Cupcakes

Replace the banana pudding filling with vanilla pudding made from scratch — or use a good-quality instant vanilla pudding mixed with whole milk. The banana batter pairs beautifully with plain vanilla filling for a more subtle, classic flavor. This is a great option if you’re serving guests who prefer less banana flavor overall.

Banana Pudding Cheesecake Cupcakes

Replace the filling with a no-bake cream cheese banana filling: beat 4oz softened cream cheese with ½ cup mashed banana, 2 tablespoons powdered sugar, and a splash of vanilla until smooth. Use that in place of the pudding. It’s richer, denser, and holds up beautifully for 2–3 days in the fridge. You can also get inspiration from this no-bake banana cheesecake with the same cream cheese base if you want to go further.

Mini Banana Pudding Cupcakes

Use a mini muffin tin and reduce the bake time to 10–12 minutes. Use a small melon baller or apple corer to remove the center plug. These are perfect for parties — one bite each, no mess.

Make It a Layer Cake

This exact batter scales up beautifully into two 8-inch round cake layers. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 28–32 minutes. Spread the banana pudding between the layers and frost the outside with the cream cheese frosting. The result is very close to this full banana cake with cream cheese frosting — a showstopper for any occasion.

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How to Store Banana Pudding Cupcakes

Because of the pudding filling and cream cheese frosting, these cupcakes need to be handled a little differently than a standard unfrosted cupcake.

Counter: Not recommended once filled and frosted — the cream cheese frosting and pudding filling both need refrigeration. Unfrosted, unfilled cupcakes can sit at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

Fridge: Up to 3 days in an airtight container or covered with plastic wrap. The frosting will firm up completely — let them sit at room temperature for 20–30 minutes before serving so the crumb softens back up.

Freezer: Up to 2 months — but freeze the cupcakes before filling and frosting. Wrap each cooled cupcake individually in plastic wrap, then place in a zip-lock freezer bag. Thaw overnight in the fridge, then fill and frost as normal the day you serve them.

Meal prep tip: I almost always bake the cupcake bases and make the pudding filling the day before. The morning of the party I make the frosting, fill, and pipe. It spreads the work over two short sessions and everything tastes completely fresh.

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Make These This Weekend, Lily’s Final Word

These banana pudding cupcakes are the kind of recipe that makes people think you spent all day in the kitchen. You didn’t. You spent 40 minutes and used some very ripe bananas.

The pudding filling is what makes them — that little pocket of cold, creamy banana pudding in the center of a warm, soft cupcake is genuinely one of my favorite things I make. My kids call them “surprise cupcakes.” I call them a very good reason to let your bananas go brown.

If you love these, try our rich chocolate banana cake for your next baking project, or keep it simple on a weeknight with our 1-minute banana mug cake.

Love, Lily 🍌