Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Buttercream Frosting

These cupcakes always seem to be a winner when I bring them to parties. When I first made them they seemed to be all anyone requested from me. I hadn't made them in awhile so I brought em back for a New Year's party because I had some overripe bananas I needed to use up.

For the cupcakes:

1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened to room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 egg

3 large bananas (the riper the better)

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

For the frosting:

2 tbsp butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1 1/2 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

4 tbsp creamy peanut butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cream 1 cup butter and 1 cup sugar together.

Crack egg over this, beat slightly with a fork, then mix into butter and sugar mixture.

In a small bowl, mash bananas. I like to leave some little chunks of banana to keep the cupcakes moist. My bananas yielded about 1.5 cups of mashed bananas. Anywhere from 1 to 1.5 cups is good.

Mix bananas into butter mixture.

Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and mix.

In another medium bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and salt.

Add flour mixture to butter mixture.

Line muffin tins with paper liners and fill about 1/2 full with batter.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until a fork inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

While cupcakes are baking, make icing.

Cream 2 tbsp butter with sugar and vanilla.

Add milk.

Add peanut butter.

Mix together until creamy and smooth.

After cupcakes have cooled, ice with the buttercream frosting.

I had some leftover peanut butter chips, so I put one in the center of each cupcake.

Recipe yields about 2 dozen cupcakes.