Lucuma Banana Cupcakes

Lucuma is a Peruvian fruit indigenous to the Andes. In its fresh form, the flesh is very dry and the fruit is very high in B vitamins and beta carotene. The fruit is gaining popularity globally, but is generally only available in powdered form in North America and Europe. On its own, lucuma is very sweet and reminds me of vanilla cake batter. It's a very popular ice cream flavor in Peru, and considered a low sugar sweetener that has more nutrition than some of the empty sweetener substitutes used today. Because lucuma reminded me of cake batter, it only made sense to make cupcakes with lucuma.

Lucuma Banana Cupcakes
Yield: 16-18 cupcakes
4 oz Teff Flour
1 oz Arrowroot Powder
5 oz Brown Rice Flour
3 oz Lacuma Powder
6 oz Sugar
3 T Chia Seeds (ground)
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
3 oz melted Coconut Oil
2 small, ripe Bananas
6 oz Water
1.6 oz Cashews
3 oz Agave
1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Combine all of the dry ingredients (including the ground chia seeds) in a sifter. Put the coconut oil, bananas, water, cashews, and agave in a high speed blender and blend until fluffy and smooth. Fold the banana mixture into the dry ingredients. Put the cupcake liners in your tin and right before you are ready to bake the cupcakes, add the apple cider vinegar to the batter and combine thoroughly. This helps the dough rise and have little air bubbles that make the texture like traditional cupcakes.


One of the pleasant side effects of using lucuma was that it made the top of the cupcake a little bit crunchy, reminding me of a cookie.


I buy my lucuma powder through rawvegansource.com here.