Birthday boy gets some homemade cupcakes!

After a sick day Saturday and a big family dinner Sunday, I totally had a by-weekend for cooking (I'm not complaining....). However, I did get myself off the bench Sunday morning to make my birthday boy husband some cupcakes. Although I didn't do any meal cooking this weekend it wasn't a total wash, I got to try "real" baking. I say "real" because my husband tells people I can bake but I can use boxed cake mix and a can of frosting (fancy huh?). I wanted to cop-out and do this, but I decided to be brave and go with something totally from scratch. I also got to use this frosting thingy I had bought, which looks like the giant syringes I use when I work as a nurse. Trust me, when I'm a nurse holding a syringe this size you want to cover any body orifice and run the other way, but this one's a keeper!
My husband absolutely loves peanut butter, as well as bananas. After a lot of recipe searching I finally found some combination of these two that fit the items I had in my cabinets (I wasn't up for a Sunday morning of screaming kids and pissy moms at the grocery store). I decided on a banana chocolate chip cupcake, with peanut butter cream cheese frosting. I'm not a big fan of either, but I will say the combo actually worked... Annnnnd these were not hard to make, slightly time consuming due to my "special" cooking issues, but that's always expected. Baking is definitely my first choice, however I don't think cakes, cupcakes, and cookies are going to fly for our weekend meals. And yes, I realized AFTER making the frosting (with cream cheese in it), that these can't just sit out on the counter for a few days, because I will give everyone food poisoning from bad dairy. Good last minute catch huh?

Banana chocolate chip cupcakes

Taken directly from Baked Perfection pinterest post. Makes total of 12 cupcakes.

1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar 
1/4 cup milk (whatever type you have at home, *I used 1% and it was fine)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup semi sweet or dark chocolate chips (this is A LOT of chips, if your not into too much chocolate I'd use 1/2 cup)

Preheat over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until combined.  Add the milk and vanilla.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition until thoroughly combined.  Slowly beat in the flour mixture, until just combined.  Slowly add in the bananas.  Once all is combined, stir in the chocolate chips by hand.  Divide batter evenly among 12 cupcake cups.  Bake in preheated oven until tops are golden, approximately 17-20 minutes (mine took 20!).  Remove to wire rack and cool completely before frosting. *And really, I had to let the tops get golden, when they started browning I took them out but the middle was not cooked, it was mushy banana grossness and they went back in. The final product was great though!

Peanut butter cream cheese frosting:

Got these ingredients from the Chocolate Peanut Butter Factory pinterest post. Makes enough for a cake, or about 12-14 cupcakes (the recipe said 18 cupcakes, but since I did the soft serve looking frosting there was no way it made it to this many!)

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (I used Reese's)
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 & 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

*Bag of Reese's mini PB Cups to put on the top of the cupcake is optional, I did it! :)

Cream the peanut butter and cream cheese in a bowl with a mixer, scraping sides until frosting is light and fluffy (not stiff and thick!). Gradually add in the sugar until all mixed, then mix in vanilla.

*I didn't know what "cream" meant, I'm still not entirely sure, but after a PB cream cheese nightmarish glue-like ball on my hand mixers, I realized using the cool looking squiggly attachments on my mixer would probably work better. It did (and this made it fluffy!), so if you have those they were fantastic :)

I kept the frosting in the fridge until an hour before we ate the cupcakes (I cooked Sunday and we ate them Monday). I had to let if soften up a little and then stuffed it in the creepy syringe froster and it worked great! For banana and peanut butter lovers, I'd definitely recommend these! Until next weekend...