Hey all, sorry that I have been kind of missing in action lately but luckily Kiki posted some recipes. While she was in town a few weeks back we did manage to try out her mango lassi recipe which was FABULOUS! So delicious and creamy with an amazing mango flavor…so if you get a chance give that recipe a try. Enough praise for Kiki’s recipe today it is my turn to post a delicious one. Today I am posting a recipe for banana chocolate cupcakes with a truffle and peanut butter cream cheese frostings. I know it is a mouthful but I guess you could call it an “Elvis” cupcake instead. These cupcakes were thought up for my friend’s party. My friend made an amazing plantain lasagna and since he was feeding us all dinner I thought I would bring some dessert. Though I am pretty sure we all ate enough that night that we didn’t have to eat again for a few days.
Back to the super tasty cupcake! The cupcake itself is really moist and chocolaty without overpowering the banana flavor. For fun I decided to go with two tasty toppings: a truffle (chocolate ganache) topping which is then surrounded by a peanut butter cream cheese frosting. YUM. My favorite part of the recipe (from the Joy of Baking) was that it didn’t call for sour cream or buttermilk to keep the cupcake moist, all I needed was bananas…which I had plenty of turning brown on my counter. You could even turn this recipe into a layer cake with the truffle filling between the layers and covered with the peanut butter cream cheese frosting. Mmmmm… But if you are short on time just frost with the peanut butter cream cheese frosting and it will still turn out.
Banana Chocolate Cupcakes:
Ingredients:
2 cups white sugar
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup cocoa
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (I used 3 brownish small bananas)
1 cup warm water
½ cup milk
½ cup vegetable oil
1 ½ tsp vanilla
Makes about 24 cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray each cup of a muffin pan with a non-stick baking spray.
- Whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.
- In another large bowl whisk together the eggs, mashed bananas, water, milk, oil and vanilla. (Pic. of mashed bananas)
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk again, until combined.
- Fill cups with the batter until they are about ¾ full and bake for about 18 minutes or until the cupcakes pass the toothpick test.
- After a few minutes remove the cupcakes from the pan and let them cool completely before frosting with the truffle filling and the peanut butter cream cheese frosting*.
*Use standard cream cheese frosting but add about ½ cup of peanut butter (to taste) to the frosting.
If you have the time, I definitely think it is worth it to put both of the frosting on the cupcakes but they are delicious with one or none of the toppings. To fancy the cupcakes up dust with a few chocolate shavings and top with a whole roasted peanut. Give the recipe a go and happy eating!