Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Peanut butter and banana are another one of my favorite combinations! As I was persuing Pinterest, I saw a pin with banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. PERFECT! Especially since I had a bunch of bananas that I needed to use up - you know the ones that ripen too quickly and then are brown in a couple of days. I sliced up 3 bananas and froze them to make smoothies and the remaining bananas went to this recipe.

My husband told me they weren't good.....they were AWESOME and the best cupcakes I ever made. That's always great to hear. I also took a dozen into work and shared them with my coworkers. Needless to say, I had lots of friends that day!

Cupcakes

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

4 banans, cut into chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper lines.

In a bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla. Continue to cream until combined.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Add the dry mix to the wet mixture and partially mix. Add the banana chunks and beat on medium-high until the batter is smooth and the banana pieces are incorporated throughout the batter.

Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin. Bake for 20 minutes or until the cupcakes are light brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool completely on a rack before frosting.

Frosting

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup creamy peanut butter

6 cups powdered sugar, sifted to remove clumps

1/4 -1/3 cup skim milk

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the peanut butter and butter until smooth on medium speed. Slowly add the powdered sugar until incorporated. Start with 1/4 cup of milk and slowly add until the consistency you desired is reached. I ended up using 1/3 cup of milk to make the frosting nice and smooth.

Frost the cupcakes with the frosting and garnish with crushed peanut butter cups.

Source: Cupcakes: Tasty Kitchen, Frosting: Cookies and Cups