Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes for Easter

Okay, okay, so I know banana chocolate chip cupcakes don't exactly scream "spring" or "Easter," but I had tons of bananas and when I made these a couple months ago they were a big hit with the fam bam. I originally found a recipe that inspired me on epicurious (the original recipe called for a peanut butter frosting--which could also be amazing). The first time I made them I didn't use green food coloring in the frosting and I sprinkled crushed Nilla wafers on top. This time for Easter, I decorated the cupcakes to look like grass with Easter eggs on top using Hershey's candy coated miniature eggs.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Yields: 12 - 16 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 very ripe large bananas, peeled
1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips (more if you're a chocolate fanatic like me)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or all spice)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
3 cups powdered sugar
1 8-oz package cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon (or more to taste)
Green food coloring drops (to preference)
Hershey's Easter Candy Coated Milk Chocolate Eggs (3 per cupcake)

Preparation

Cupcakes
1. Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. 

2. Line a muffin tin with paper liners and set aside.

3. Whisk flour, baking powder, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl to blend. 

4. Mash bananas with fork in another medium bowl until smooth. 

5. Mix sour cream and vanilla into bananas.

6. Using stand mixer (or electric mixer), beat sugar and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. This took me about 2-3 minutes.

7. Add one whole egg and the egg yolk of the second and beat until well blended. 

8. 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. (I'm not sure if this really makes a difference or not, but I did this and it made my cupcakes come out light and fluffy--not like when you overmix a batter.)
9. Add in chocolate chips, fold into batter until well distributed.

10. Divide batter among prepared muffin tin -- with about 1/4 cup each.

11. Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center of each comes out clean, about 20 minutes. (Mine took exactly 20 minutes)

12. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack and let cool completely before frosting.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
1. Sift powdered sugar into large bowl. 

2. Add cream cheese and butter.
3. Add cinnamon and vanilla.

3. Using stand mixer (or electric mixer), beat until smooth.
4. Add green food coloring and mix until well blended. (Do not overmix)

5. Pipe frosting onto cupcakes. (I was at my grandmother's house and didn't have my piping bags and tips so I simply used a plastic baggy and cut off one of the bottom corners to use as my piping bag. But you could get really fancy and use the Wilton's grass tip --  Wilton Multi-Opening #233 Decorating Tip)
6. Place 3 candy eggs in the center of the cupcake.

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's always interesting when my boyfriend and my good friend Richard get together. They are like two little kids, ganging up on me, the mom apparently. Haha. Anywho after the three of us spent a good 24 straight hours together--including a trip to IKEA, Costco and then assembling all the furniture we bought--it seemed like a good time to have something a little sweet. Richard likes peanut butter cookies and I like chocolate so I thought I'd look up a recipe for Peanut Chocolate Butter Chip Cookies. By the time the cookies were just about done in the oven, I could hear the two "kids" asking if they were ready yet and blaming each other for asking. Oh silly boys. :)

When I was looking for a recipe, I first went on Pinterest for a while and then decided just to Google it. The first recipe that popped up was through About.com, you can find it here.

Ingredients

- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

- 1/2 cup chunky or smooth peanut butter

- 1/2 cup granulated sugar

- 1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

- 1 egg

- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I think next time I will reduce the flour by 1/4 cup, the dough was a little flaky and hard to form balls)

- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

- 1/4 teaspoon salt

- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips 

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°. Blend the butter, peanut butter and sugars in an electric mixer until smooth. Add the egg and mix until fluffy. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, soda and salt together well. Add these dry ingredients to the butter mixture while mixing on low. Fold in the chocolate chips with the mixer or by hand with a spoon. Form small 1 inch balls with ragged edges (not completely smooth) and place onto lightly greased baking sheets. For a tutorial on how to shape cookies check out this site. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Here is the picture tutorial on shaping cookies which I love!

From Brown Eyed Baker's blog. Find it here.

 

Enjoy!