banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting

I recently baked these cupcakes for a girlfriend's birthday. We all met at a bar, so I brought them in a shoebox to surprise her (ensuring that the shoe box didn't have any strong smells, of course) - and she loved them! The bartender even took one for himself! I totally recommend this recipe to anyone who loves a good peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich. You can opt to not make the frosting, and serve them for brunch as well.



INGREDIENTS:

cupcakes
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 EXTREMELY ripe bananas (I swear the longer you can wait to use the bananas the better - mine were almost gushing out of the peels!)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup ( 1 stick ) unsalted butter, room temp.




frosting
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 8-oz package cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter (do not use old-fashioned or freshly ground)



PREPARATION:

for cupcakes
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Line 12 standard (1/3 cup) muffin cups with paper liners. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl to blend. Mash bananas with fork in another medium bowl until smooth. Mix sour cream and vanilla into bananas.

Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and egg yolk and beat until well blended. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with banana-sour cream mixture in 2 additions, beginning and ending with flour mixture and beating just until blended after each addition. Divide batter among prepared muffin cups (generous 1/4 cup for each). Do NOT overfill the cups - this recipe can make up to 24 cupcakes.

Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center of each comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to rack and let cool completely.

After baking sheet has cooled, re-line with cupcake paper liners. Fill cups with the rest of the batter, and bake as directed above.

for frosting
Sift powdered sugar into large bowl. Add cream cheese, butter, and peanut butter. Using electric mixer or whisk, beat mixture until smooth. Spread fromsting over top of cupcakes, dividing equally. Can be made 1 day ahead - store airtight at room temperature.



original recipe courtesy of epicurious.com