The Banana Cream Pie to My Cupcake

This warm weather has me in a mood… a mood for summer food. And for me, the single best part of a neighborhood cookout is the cool, satisfyingly sweet dessert everyone’s favorite mom proudly places on the picnic table. 

Whether it was Jell-O shaped into some impressive mold, boxed brownies or apple pie, I was never shy about sampling. And I’m talking start-a-new-plate, hand-in-your-face, don’t-bother-me sampling. But no matter the spread, my favorite post-meal treat has always been banana cream pie. And because it’s not quite summer yet, I decided to do a new spin on the classic dessert using a few store-bought ingredients.

Banana cream pie pudding mix is whipped into the cupcake batter and the icing. The cupcakes are garnished with a Nilla Wafer on the top and the bottom -- because one just didn’t seem like enough.

So here’s to an early warm season and the silly groundhog always being wrong.

Recipe adapted from Betty Crocker
Makes 12-18 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 box yellow cupcake mix 
Water, eggs and oil, according to package
1 box (3.4-ounce size) banana cream instant pudding and pie filling mix
Nilla Wafer cookies
1 (16-ounce size) can vanilla frosting
3 tablespoons whole milk
1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

Directions:

Make cupcake batter as directed on cupcake mix box. Mix in 1/2 box of pudding mix. Before filling paper baking cups, place one Nilla Wafer cookie in bottom of each paper cup. Fill cups as directed on box. Bake and cool cupcakes.

Meanwhile, beat together the rest of the pudding mix with milk. Beat in vanilla frosting. Reserve for later.

Frost cooled cupcakes and sprinkle top with graham cracker crumbs. Garnish with one Nilla Wafer.