Do you ever try a new recipe and think, 'Damn, I'm glad I tried making that, cause it's delicious!'? I do all the time, and today was the perfect example of that. I tried out King Arthur Flour's recipe for Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting. I don't have King Arthur Flour, but I figure that doesn't so much matter. I found the recipe on Pinterest, of course.
Ingredients:
CAKE
- 1/2 cup softened butter
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 medium bananas (the riper the better)
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- a pinch of nutmeg
- 2 1/3 cup flour
FROSTING
- 2 cups confectioner's sugar
- 3/4 cup peanut butter, smooth or chunky
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- a pinch of salt
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup of milk
- 1/4 cup toffee pieces
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF, and prep a muffin pan with grease and/or cupcake papers. I used silicone cups that I sprayed with a veggie oil spray. Then in a kitchen mixer I combined the softened butter and sugar together. Once they were well combined, I added the eggs individually. While that was mixing throughly I cut the bananas up into bite sized chunks, then dropped them in the mixer by the handful. Next I added the honey, yogurt, and vanilla. Then I was able to move on to the dry ingredients. I added the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and flour in that order individually. The flour I added by the tablespoon with the mixer on slow. Once everything was throughly combined I filled the cupcake cups with the batter. Fill to the top, because they don't rise too much. I should have filled a few of mine more, they were a bit on the flat side.
Then I popped them in the oven for 25 minutes, which was perfect. The edges were a nice golden brown, and a toothpick stuck in the center came out clean.
After the cupcakes cooled I got to making the frosting. I mixed together the powdered sugar and peanut butter together. That seemed to take forever to throughly mix, but then I added the vanilla, and pinch of salt. Then I slowly added the milk, I used most of a 1/2 cup of milk, but I think my frosting was a bit runny. It's easy to add more milk to thin, but it's more work to add more sugar to thicken it. I just went with the runny frosting. Before frosting the cupcakes remove them from the muffin pan, and get to town. I'm lazy so I just used a metal spatula, but you can definitely pipe it on for a prettier outcome. I finished up by sprinkling toffee bits over the tops of them. The recipe I was following suggested honey roasted peanuts. I'm sure both would be amazing!
They aren't beautiful, but they taste amazing. The banana isn't overwhelming, and the peanut butter is creamy and perfect. This will be a great quick breakfast on busy mornings. I can't wait to eat another one! :)
Happy Nom Nom Monday, and happy DIYing, chris
