These cupcakes are a favorite at the Butter Lane bakery in New York City
source: Glamour Magazine February 2010
Ingredients
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 large egg
1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 quarter teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 and 1/4 cups ripe banana, mashed
Directions
For Banana Cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy.
Add eggs and vanilla until the batter is smooth.
Combine all dry ingredients and mix into batter in 3 parts, alternating with buttermilk. Reduce speed to low and mix for 2 more minutes.
Line the cupcake pan with wrappers. Using a spatula, gently fold mashed bananas into batter. Scoop into cups until 2/3 full.
Bake for 25 minutes and let cool.
For frosting, combine 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 stick softened unsalted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add 1 cup creamy peanut butter and 3 tablespoons milk. Mix until spreadable.
Enjoy!
Also, try the banana Muffins recipe
The History Of Cupcakes
The earliest extant description of what is now often called a cupcake was in 1796, when a recipe for “a light cake to bake in small cups” was written in American Cookery by Amelia Simmons. The earliest extant documentation of the term cupcake itself was in “Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats” in 1828 in Eliza Leslie‘s Receipts cookbook.
In the early 19th century, the term cupcake was used for two different purposes. In previous centuries, before muffin tins were widely available, the cakes were often baked in individual pottery cups, ramekins, or molds and took their name from the cups they were baked in. This is the use of the name that has remained, and the name of “cupcake” is now given to any small, round cake that is about the size of a teacup. While English fairy cakes vary in size more than American cupcakes, they are traditionally smaller and are rarely topped with elaborate frosting.
Earlier Days
The other kind of “cupcake” referred to a cake whose ingredients were measured by volume, using a standard-sized cup, instead of being weighed. Recipes whose ingredients were measured using a standard-sized cup could also be baked in cups; however, they were more commonly baked in tins as layers or loaves. In later years, when the use of volume measurements was firmly established in American home kitchens, these recipes became known as 1234 cakes or quarter cakes, so called because they are made up of four ingredients: one cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, and four eggs. They are plain yellow cakes, somewhat less rich and less expensive than pound cake, due to using about half as much butter and eggs compared to pound cake.
The names of these two major classes of cakes were intended to signal the method to the baker; “cup cake” uses a volume measurement, and “pound cake” uses a weight measurement. (Wikipedia)