A Shot of Nostalgia: Banana Cupcakes from the 90s

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Remember those My Little Pony cupcakes I mentioned in my first post? Well, I’ve decided to revisit the magic and see if I can recreate them— keeping it simple, with a cake mix, and easy to follow instructions for you to use.  

I have searched and searched the internet, and I couldn’t find any reference to these cupcakes! I remember my mum buying them from this department store called Woolworth's, which has closed down here in Cyprus. I called my friend who we grew up together. She is a year younger than me, and I thought “Yeah right! She’s not going to remember!” And she said “I remember!! There were banana flavored ones and strawberry ones, and each flavor came with a different cartoon! And we used those stickers on top!” Got it! She gave me the idea to go for the banana flavor. I said we added water, eggs and butter, right? She said no butter, just one egg. So I called my mum. She agreed with my friend. They remember better than me! I’d swear they were vanilla.  

Piecing together Cupcake Memories

There I was, in the grocery store, buying cake mix (who? Me!! I haven’t used a box for a cake since I was in college!) I also tossed some bananas into the shopping cart! These will have to ripen for the ultimate flavor. The rest, I consider staples, so I always have them at home😊  

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Meanwhile, I was searching for the retro images of My Little Pony, so I can recreate the wafter paper “stickers,” too! Let me tell ya, I had a really hard time. I don’t know how long the “new” My Little Pony has been around, but the original one has almost disappeared. While searching different versions of this cartoon, I also learned the difference between ‘retro’ (modern reproductions) and ‘vintage’ (actual old designs - made over 20 years ago). So I am looking for vintage images to make something retro 😂. Antique is something over 100 years old, but I don’t think we are there yet.  

I finally found the round vintage logo! With a friend’s magical powers (he knows graphics way better than I do, and you can check his Instagram account here) we were able to put this in a format that we can print on wafer paper. Yeih! And when I say “we,” I mean “he”. And because I don’t have an edible ink printer at home I had to print this at a local cake supply store.  

Holding the print out in my hand brought back so many memories. I sent a picture to my childhood friend, Pheobe, and told her “we are recreating these, this Friday, at your house!” She was just as excited as I was!!  

Plans, Meet Reality 

Friday didn’t go as planned! I arrived at Pheobe’s house with all my excitement, only to discover that there was no power. Can you believe it? We had everything ready to recreate these nostalgic cupcakes, but no oven! All that anticipation, only to realize we’d have to wait a little longer. 

So, what did I do? I went home and saved the magic for Sunday morning. Armed with my cake mix, bananas, and those vintage wafer paper ‘stickers,’ I finally got to baking! And trust me, they turned out just as enchanting as I remembered. 

For the icing, I went with the same simple, runny icing that I remembered from my childhood. It’s quick, easy, and keeps the focus on the cute vintage images.

Watch the Magic Unfold 

I even captured the process on video, so if you want to see exactly how I made these cupcakes, check out the video on my YouTube channel! I’ll walk you through the whole thing—from mixing the cake batter to adding the wafer paper toppers—so you can easily follow along and make these at home. 

My mum said they were the best cupcakes she every had! The fresh bananas really made them moist and gave them full flavor. It was as if I was visiting my childhood for a brief moment. Even the wafer stickers tasted the same! 

Have you ever recreated a recipe from your childhood? Let me know in the comments if you have, or if there’s something you’d love to bring back from your kitchen memories! And don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more baking adventures like this one. 

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