Chocolate banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting

Most of the things I’ve been cooking and baking lately haven’t been very photogenic. Like casseroles and soups and wraps. All tasty but not so good for pictures, so I haven’t posted about any of it. I do realize that doesn’t make much sense since my photos are all pretty awful regardless of how photogenic the food may or may not be. But the thing is, I do have photo standards, even if you can’t tell by looking at the photos on this blog.

Little cupcakes

Thankfully, though, the photos of these cupcakes turned out fine (by my standards, remember!). They are also so, so good, like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup in cupcake form. But with banana, so maybe not like a Reese’s. Either way, I highly recommend them.

Cupcake closeup

Chocolate banana cupcakes

If you replace the milk with coconut milk, the cupcakes are vegan, which is good to know if you ever need a vegan chocolate cupcake recipe.

Makes 12, although I used slightly smaller cupcake liners and made 20.

1/2 c milk 

1/2 c ripe banana (about 1 banana)
1/3 c canola oil
1 t vanilla
3/4 c sugar
1 c cakeflour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt

Preheat oven to 170 C. Line muffin pan with paper liners.

In a small bowl, mash the banana with a fork. Whisk in the milk, sugar, oil, and vanilla until incorporated. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients and pour in banana mixture. Stir until just smooth, being careful not to over-mix.


Pour into liner, filling each with 3 tablespoons of batter for normal-sized cupcakes. The liners should be no more than 2/3 full, so follow that guideline if you're using smaller liners like I did.

Bake 18-20 minutes for normal-sized cupcakes, or 15-18 minutes for smaller ones. Cool completely on a wire rack before topping with peanut butter frosting.

Peanut butter frosting

This frosting works very well on top of the chocolate banana cupcakes, but it’s even better eaten by the spoonful, straight out of the mixing bowl. The recipe makes a bit too much for the cupcakes but that’s so you have leftovers for eating straight.

3/4  c smooth peanut butter

1/4 c butter, softened

2 t vanilla

Pinch salt

2 c sifted icing sugar

Milk as needed

Place the peanut butter and butter in a mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer. Beat the two together for a minute or two until thoroughly combined and smooth. Add the vanilla and salt and beat again to combine.

Now add half of the sifted icing sugar and beat on high for two minutes, until mixture is completely smooth. Add the rest of the icing sugar and beat on high for a further 2 minutes until smooth. Add a tablespoon or more of milk and beat to thin out the consistency, if needed.