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.

Pancakes for the weekend

I love my morning bowl of oats topped with banana and a bit of granola, but on weekends I want a more indulgent breakfast. My problem is that said indulgent breakfasts generally make me feel ill. Later in the day I can eat sweets and rich foods happily for hours on end, but not for breakfast. So I’ve invented oatmeal pancakes that, topped with banana and granola, are nearly identical ingredient-wise to my usual oatmeal breakfast. But they look different! And they taste good too.

Breakfast in the morning sun

Oatmeal pancakes

These pancakes aren’t very sweet since banana is the only sweetener. If you can handle sweet things in the morning, add a few teaspoons of sugar or syrup of your choice to the batter.

Serves 2

2/3 c rolled oats

1 ripe banana

1 large egg

1tsp vanilla essence

¾ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp cinnamon

Pinch salt

Butter or cooking spray

In a food processor, grind the oatmeal down for a few minutes. It doesn’t have to get as fine as flour, just break down the flakes a bit. Add the remaining ingredients, except the butter or cooking spray, and blend in the food processor for a minute or two until smooth and creamy.

Place a pan over medium heat and allow to heat thoroughly. Once hot, melt a little butter in the pan, or spray with cooking spray, and spoon pancake batter into the pan. I make six smallish pancakes out of the batter in three batches, since the small ones are easier to flip and my pan is quite small. You can of course make however many you like, of whatever size. It all depends on how good you are at flipping, and how big your pan is.

Let the pancakes cook on one side with a lid covering the pan until the edges are nicely set, then flip over and cook uncovered till they feel springy and are cooked through.

I eat the pancakes with sliced banana, a bit of golden syrup, and a sprinkling of homemade granola.