Banana cream pie dessert cups are a fun, portable way to enjoy banana cream pie! A vanilla wafer crust, creamy banana mousse filling, whipped cream, and fresh banana. Mini banana cream pies are the perfect dessert recipe for parties, bake sales, and picnics!
Ingredients for Banana Cream Pie Dessert Cups
- Vanilla wafer crumbs – Crush the vanilla wafers using a food processor to make fine crumbs. You could also use vanilla sandwich cookies or a graham cracker crumbs to make a graham cracker crust if you prefer.
- Unsalted butter – Melted. You can also use salted butter!
- Instant banana pudding mix – Be sure the pudding mix is instant and not cook and serve. A 3.4 ounce box. You could also substitute banana pudding mix with vanilla pudding mix.
- Milk – Use your favorite milk. I use 2% milk when baking, and no-baking.
- Vanilla extract – Pure vanilla extract enhances the banana flavor and adds subtle vanilla flavor to the whipped cream.
- Heavy cream – Heavy cream or heavy whipping cream work equally well for this recipe.
- Powdered sugar – Adds a touch of sweetness to the whipped cream.
- Banana – Sliced. I recommend using ripe bananas for the best banana flavor and sweetness.
Tools & Supplies for Making Banana Cream Pie Dessert Cups
How to Make Banana Cream Pie Dessert Cups
- In a mixing bowl, combine vanilla wafer crumbs and melted unsalted butter.
- Portion the crumbs into 28 2-ounce plastic cups. Use one of the plastic cups to press the crumbs into the bottom of the cup.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together instant banana pudding mix, milk, and vanilla extract. Chill in the refrigerator for five minutes.
- Add heavy cream to the banana pudding mixture and whip with an electric hand mixer on medium-high speed until it has a thick and fluffy consistency.
- Fill a piping bag with the banana pudding mixture and pipe a little banana pudding onto the crust. If you do not have a piping bag, simply spoon the mixture into the cups.
- Add a slice of banana to each cup. Pipe a layer of the remaining banana pudding mixture on top of the bananas until it fills the cups about 3/4 full.
- To make the whipped cream, use the electric hand mixer to whip heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until still peaks form.
- Pipe a little whipped cream on top of each dessert cup and sprinkles on some additional vanilla wafer crumbs.
- Seal the cups with a lid and chill. The cups can be served immediately or stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. I actually think they taste best after a few days!
Banana Cream Pie Dessert Cups Recipe Tips
Plastic cups
The plastic cups with lids can be found on Amazon or at your local party supply store. You can also use cupcake liners if you wish but they are not very sturdy. The cups are 2-ounces, but feel free to make them any size you would like! The recipe makes approximately 28 2-ounce cups give or take depending on how much banana mousse you pipe into the cups.
Making vanilla wafer crumbs
I use a food processor to make the vanilla wafer crumbs. Pulse the cookies until they turn into fine crumbs. Some other fun variations to vanilla wafers could be vanilla or chocolate sandwich cookies, biscoff cookies, or shortbread cookies! After filling the 28 cups for the recipe, you should have some extra crumbs to use as garnish.
Bananas
For the best flavor, use ripe bananas! Ripe bananas have great flavor and sweetness. You can thinly slice or finely dice the bananas. For this recipe I used about 2 medium-sized bananas. To ensure the bananas stay as fresh as possible in the dessert cups, encase them in the banana mousse – vanilla wafer crust, banana mousse, sliced/diced bananas, banana mousse, and then the whipped cream. This will prevent the bananas from browning too much!
Storing and serving
These dessert cups can be stored in the refrigerator for about 2 to 3 days. I love serving these dessert cups out of a cooler at a picnic or party. The dessert cups can stay out at room temperature for about an hour, but no direct heat!
Click here to see a quick video on how to make banana cream pie dessert cups! Follow Cake Me Home Tonight on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube for more recipe videos and baking tutorials!
Banana Cream Pie Dessert Cups
Equipment
- Electric hand mixer
- 28 2 ounce plastic cups with lids click here to purchase the cups
Ingredients
Vanilla Wafer Crust
- 2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs
- ¼ cup unsalted butter melted
Banana Mousse Filling
- 3.4 oz instant banana pudding mix
- 1 ½ cups milk
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream
Whipped Cream
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 tbsp powdered sugar
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
Additional Ingredients
- 1-2 bananas sliced
- additional vanilla wafer crumbs for garnish
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, combine vanilla wafer crumbs and melted unsalted butter.
- Portion the crumbs into 28 2-ounce plastic cups using a small cookie scoop Use one of the plastic cups to press the crumbs into the bottom of the cup.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together instant banana pudding mix, milk, and vanilla extract. Chill in the refrigerator for five minutes.
- Add heavy cream to the banana pudding mixture and whip with an electric hand mixer on medium-high speed until it has a thick and fluffy consistency.
- Fill a piping bag with the banana pudding mixture and pipe a small amount into the cups. If you do not have a piping bag, simply spoon the mixture into the cups.
- Add a banana slice to each cup on top of the banana pudding. Pipe a layer of the remaining banana pudding mixture on top of the bananas until it fills the cups about 3/4 full.
- To make the whipped cream, use the electric hand mixer to whip heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until still peaks form.
- Pipe a dollop of whipped cream on top of each dessert cup and sprinkle on additional vanilla wafer crumbs.
- Seal the cups with a lid and chill. The cups can be served immediately or stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. I actually think they taste best after a few days!
Notes
Made This Recipe?
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Comments & Reviews
have you ever thought about publishing a book with the recipes, one book for each dessert?
Hi Wendy! It is definitely a goal of mine to publish a cookbook! Maybe sooner than later! 🙂