Banana Cupcakes w/ Peanut Butter Frosting
Happy Earth Day, everyone!
To celebrate, I bought myself a new Sigg. Originally it was because mine is getting kind of beat up and Gilt was having a sale, but turns out it was probably a good idea anyway. Kind of ironic, especially since my mom got me my first one in reaction to the Nalgene-BPA scare a few years ago.
Campus is currently swarming with high school seniors as today marked the beginning of Admit Weekend for prospective freshman (or Pro Fros, as we call them). It’s hard to believe that just two years ago I was one of the small, nervous, scared-looking kids I’ve been seeing all day going to and from class. OK, so not all of them are that small, but they do share a sort of bemused air that is only pronounced by the name tags they get upon registration. And the fact that they all travel in packs. Or herds, rather, like lost little lambs. It’s cute, really.
Time really flies, though. I’m almost done with my second year, meaning that I only have 6 weeks left to declare my second major. Yikes! My only hope is that I don’t end up as jaded as the other upperclassmen I know. But as I’m not pre-med anymore, I’d say the chances of me being able to enjoy my two remaining years are pretty good.
But anyways, in addition to Earth Day, April 22 is also my friend’s birthday. I always see her munching on bananas with peanut butter in the dining hall, so when I saw this on TasteSpotting I knew it would be perfect. Thanks to Laura of L. Brooks Cooks for posting!
I’m only including the cupcake recipe because I found the frosting to be a bit disappointing. It called for cream cheese in addition to butter and peanut butter, which totally overwhelmed the taste of the latter. Somewhere on here I have a decent recipe for peanut butter frosting that doesn’t involve cream cheese, which I would recommend.
Banana Cupcakes (credit to Bon Apetit, April 2010):
- 1 1/4 C all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 t baking powder
- 1/2 t baking soda
- 1/4 t salt
- 3 small, ripe bananas, peeled
- 1/2 C sour cream
- 1 1/2 t vanilla extract
- 3/4 C granulated sugar
- 1/2 C unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
Preheat oven to 350F. Line a muffin tin with liners.
Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
In a separate bowl, mash bananas and mix with vanilla and sour cream until smooth.
In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and egg yolk and beat until blended. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with banana mixture. (Begin and end with flour mixture). Beat just until blended each time.
Spoon into prepared muffin tin. Bake until toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs, about 20 minutes.
Let cool before frosting.
Yields 12 cupcakes.
