Peanut butter and banana. I know it’s only been 5 seconds since I did a post about that particular flavour combination, but I liked it so much, I felt it needed to be incorporated into something else. Also, Kevin really liked the banana filling from my knock-off nutter butters from the other week and told me that banana pudding was actually one of his childhood favourites.
Since his birthday was coming up at the time, and I feel like I always just do something peanut butter chocolate because that’s his favourite combo, I was excited about the prospect of incorporating something else into his birthday sugary treat. In attempting to cover as many favourites as possible into one delectable dish, I opted to make these peanut butter cupcakes, which are imbued with chunks of peanut butter swirl, filled with a hybrid banana pudding-frosting, topped with chocolate frosting. Then, because Kevin is also quite the S’Mores fan, I topped that with some crushed Golden Graham cereal and mini torch toasted marshmallows (that last part may or may not have been included so that I would have an excuse to use my mini blowtorch. Who can say? 😉 ).
Can you see those little nuggets of peanut butter gold in that picture? There’s actual peanut butter in the batter of course, but I wanted these to have some seriously crazy peanut butter flavour. I’ve tried just adding swirls of straight peanut butter into things before baking before, but it always kind of ends up just becoming super dry chunks of peanut butter since the oil/liquid seems to get baked out. How to get around this? I asked myself. Combine it with some white chocolate chips and coconut oil, spread on a cookie sheet and freeze it before breaking it into deliciously smooth and creamy peanut butter chunks (delicious all on their own as well by the way). Now I know, you can also just use peanut butter chips. This is fine if a) you can find vegan pb chips (which I cannot), but also b) these are WAY better. Just trust me on this one and embrace it. I promise you won’t regret it (unless you are allergic to peanut butter of course, at which point, only embrace it if you happen to have your super-hardcore epi pen handy:
I make way too many peanut allergy jokes/references. I know it’s no laughing matter if you’re actually allergic. It’s just such a tragedy to me, and I’m totally the kind of person who responds to tragedy, depressing news and generally awkward situations by making a joke. So really, isn’t my making light of it actually a sign of how seriously I take it? I say yes.
No need to (Peanut) butter me up to get me to make these again. It would just be an excuse to have S’more to go around.
Yield: 1 dozen cupcakes
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 ½ cups cake/ pastry flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup cane sugar
- ½ cup vegan butter, room temperature
- ¼ cup peanut butter
- 2 egg replacer (use crème de cacao as water)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ teaspoon almond extract (optional)
- ½ cup non-dairy milk of choice
- ½ cup mini marshmallows
- ½ cup Golden Grahams cereal
Peanut Butter Swirl In:
- ¼ cup white chocolate chips
- ¼ cup peanut butter
- 1 tablespoons vegan butter
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
Banana Filling:
- 1/4 cup vegan banana pudding mix
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/4 cup vegan butter
- 2 tablespoons banana liqueur
- 1 tablespoon chocolate liqueur
- 1 teaspoon banana extract
- 1 tablespoons maple syrup (or honey)
- pinch of salt (optional)
- 1 ½ cups icing sugar
- ½ cup coconut milk powder (or other non-dairy milk powder, or just use more icing sugar)
- 2-3 tablespoons non-dairy milk
Chocolate Buttercream:
- 1/4 cups vegan butter, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ½ tablespoons melted vegan chocolate
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 2/3 cup icing sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons almond milk
Directions
- Prepare ribbons first. In a microwave safe bowl, combine white chocolate chips, peanut butter, butter and coconut oil. Melt on high 30 seconds. Stir until smooth. Spoon a rectangle (don’t worry too much about size, but try to make it at least 6 inches long) onto a plate lined with wax paper. Chill for 30 minutes or until set. Cup into smallish chunks and return to the fridge or freezer while preparing cupcakes.
- Preheat oven to 325F
- Line cupcake pans with cupcake liners.
- In a medium sized bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and peanut butter. Add the egg replacer, vanilla and almond extracts and beat until fully combined.
- In a couple of batches, alternate mixing in the non-dairy milk and flour mixture. Be careful not to over mix.
- Fold in chunks of your peanut butter swirl in.
- Divide the batter evenly among your prepared cupcake liners (Fill them about 2/3 to 3/4 full). Bake about 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- While your cupcakes are baking, make the banana pudding filling. In a medium-sized bowl, cream together the banana pudding mix, lemon juice and butter for a couple of minutes until smooth and pale in colour. Mix in the banana liqueur, chocolate liqueur, banana extract, maple syrup and salt (if using). Beat for a minute. Slowly sift in the coconut milk powder and then the icing sugar.
- If filling is too thick, add non-dairy milk until desired consistency is achieved, if it’s too thin, add a bit more icing sugar or coconut milk powder. Place in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- For the chocolate butter cream frosting – In a medium sized bowl, beat together the butter, vanilla and melted chocolate. Slowly add the cocoa powder and mix to combine. Beat in the icing sugar. Add non-dairy milk slowly, only adding as much as you need to get the right spreadable/ piping consistency.
- Once cupcakes are fully cooled, fill with banana pudding, frost with chocolate buttercream, and sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs. Strategically place mini marshmallows on top by gently pressing into your chocolate buttercream. Toast with a mini blowtorch if desired.
- Store in the refrigerator.
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