Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream

 Hello, all! As you may already know, fall has finally arrived and I am so excited!! Not only is it my favorite season, but it also means everything will be pumpkin-flavored! So there will be many, many pumpkin recipes coming soon!

So I had a banana lying around (OK well, I stole it off of Roger's bunch), and I decided to make just enough cupcakes for that one banana (which is about 9). I found a recipe for banana cupcakes and cut everything in half. This is the whole recipe:

• 1/2 c shortening
•  1 1/2 c sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1c mashed bananas (about 2 bananas)
• 1/4c buttermilk*
• 2c all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• **1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp nutmeg** (I added this and it's delicious!)

1) Cream shortening and sugar.

2) Add eggs, vanilla, bananas, and buttermilk.
3) Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add to the banana mixture.

4) Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. Insert a butter knife in order to determine doneness.

They look a bit overfilled, so I'll make 9 next time

Meanwhile, I made a Martha Stewart recipe for peanut butter buttercream (yields one cup-- perfect for this amount of cupcakes!)

• 2/3 c peanut butter
• 8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 c confectioner's sugar
• fine salt (like popcorn salt)

1) Cream peanut butter and butter on high speed using the paddle attachment.
2) On low speed, mix in the sugar until combined, then beat the mixture on high until fluffy (about 3 minutes).
3) Add salt to taste.

Yum!!

  And when the cupcakes and this buttercream are combined...

... something delicious and magical happens! These are amazing! My Betrothed (who is a huge fan of bananas and peanut butter) loved them! So these recipes are definite keepers! I can't wait to pair these banana cupcakes with other buttercream recipes (cream cheese? salted caramel? Brown butter?). Stay tuned!

Ah, yes. About that pesky asterisk up there...

*I didn't have buttermilk on hand when I was making this recipe, but I did have milk and lemons, so this is a way to make buttermilk for baking: Combine 1/2 cup of milk (I had 2% and it worked fine) and 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice. Let sit for 15 minutes, and voila! You have buttermilk!