I’m not sure if there is a better combo than chocolate, peanut butter and bananas. This recipe immediately caught my attention while I was food blog surfing a few weeks ago. The recipe has been sitting on my counter top since then and I finally had some overripe bananas to make the recipe. It originated from a blog called YumSugar. I knew it would be good just looking and reading through the recipe. I of course added my own twist on it by adding peanut butter to the banana cupcake batter and used a dark chocolate cocoa in the frosting. Her recipe adds a dulce de leche filling inside the middle which would be delicious, but it’s a 2 hour process that I passed on. Maybe next time I’ll try it.
I caught my 2 year old stealing one before dinner when I told him to wait. He tried fooling me, but the empty cupcake wrapper on the floor gave it away!
Talk about heaven sent! I’m not just filling space here, these are so good! Use up those ripe bananas on these puppies! Enjoy!
Banana Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Buttercream
(recipe adapted from YumSugar)
Makes 24
Cupcakes
4 small or 3 medium overripe bananas plus 1 more for decoration
splash of milk (optional)
1/4 Cup peanut butter
2 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 sticks of butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- In a food processor, puree bananas and peanut butter until smooth. Depending on your bananas, you may need to add a splash of mixture so that the consistency is nice and smooth. Set aside.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk or sift flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together. Set aside.
- In a mixer or large bowl, cream butter and sugars together until well mixed, and airy.
- Add eggs, one at a time, making sure each egg is fully incorporated before proceeding.
- Stir in vanilla, followed by banana puree. Slowly add dry ingredients
- Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners. Scoop an even amount of dough into each cup. I filled them to the top and had enough for 24 cupcakes.
- Bake for about 16 minutes. A wooden skewer inserted in the middle willl come out clean and tops are a light brown in color.
- Remove cupcakes from oven and cool in tins for two minutes. Transfer to cooling rack..
- Spoon some frosting on top of each cupcake, spread out with a spatula.
For frosting:
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
- In a small bowl or mixer, cream butter.
- Mix in cocoa powder (you can add more or less depending on taste).
- Mix in vanilla.
- Mix in half of powdered sugar, followed by half of the milk.
Mix in the rest of the powdered sugar. Blend well. Add the rest of the milk and mix completely. If your frosting is too thin, add more sugar (or cocoa depending on taste). If it is too thick, add more milk.