I love banana cupcakes! And I LOVE peanut butter!! Consequently, I didn't need much prodding to whip up a batch as per request of my ever faithful testing staff to make a banana cupcake with peanut butter icing! I searched the internet but none were sounding quite what I had in mind. And I also realize that the least amount of flour you can get away with using in vegan baking recipes the lighter your end product will be. Incorporating air is also important wherever possible -- so sift, blend and add bubbles! Yes bubbles -- I didn't want to add vinegar to my product so I thought I would add two tablespoons of good old gingerale to the mixture and voila! These cupcakes turned out so light and airy even I was surprised! I'll be making this one again as I'm only basing my result on one try but I wanted to put it up here so others could give it a whirl and see what you think. The icing on the cupcakes weighed more than the cupcake -- that's the ratio I like :)My downfall is sweets -- blame my mother. I'll give you an idea why -- some of the favorite lunches she used to make us where homemade cinnamon buns and fresh homemade bread with chocolate icing! We were thrilled when we would come home for lunch to such wonderfulness! I don't know where she found the time to do all this from scratch stuff with 8 kids and a household to run (and many years sans running water and doing all her cooking/baking on a beautiful wood stove -- though she used coal)! And we didn't live out in the bush -- this was circa 1960-67 in North Edmonton. Our house was built in 1905 making it one of the older in the area for sure whilst new homes were springing up around us and young families moving in constantly. The house is still standing and is still owned and being rented out by my folks. My folks are stilling standing straight and tall too. They garden, cook, bake and go dancing weekly -- we're very fortunate and so are they. It's a blessing all the way around to have elderly parents that are in good health. I wish that for all of you out there. After all that rambling I now give you the fluffiest vegan banana cupcakes ever! I hope they turn out that way for you too!
Recipe
1-1/2 cup flour (I used Western Family all-purpose organic/pre-sifted)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup organic granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup earth balance whipped margarine (melted)
1/2 cup organic coconut milk
2 tablespoons golden flaxseed (ground)
4 organic ripe bananas
2 teaspoons frontier organic vanilla extract
2 tablespoons gingerale
#1 -- Stir together the first six dry ingredients (from the flour to the salt)and then sifted into a large bowl.
#2 -- Put the melted margarine (cooled slightly), the coconut milk, bananas, the ground flaxseed, and the vanilla extract in blender and whirl till light and frothy! I then added the 2 tablespoons of gingerale - whirled briefly.
#3 -- Incorporate the wet ingredients into the dry using as few strokes as possible to blend the two mixtures together.
#4 -- Using a 1/3 cup measure divide mixture evenly into your cupcake liners (I used the If You Care nonstick/unbleached cupcake liners). I had some leftover batter which I ate with a spoon -- didn't feel like having to put one cupcake in another 12 cup pan! Not the best plan but see what you do with it :) The test of a excellent finished end product is an excellent raw product and I'll say it was darn tasty!
#5 -- Throw in the oven at 350 for about 18-20 minutes depending on your oven. I suggest checking at the 18 minute mark. Since these are light they do bake quickly.
#6 -- Let cool in the muffin tin for a few minutes, then turn out to a wire rack.
#7 -- Frost if desired. As you know I had a request for peanut butter icing so I just made the super simple standard icing -- throw in some peanut butter (actually it was quite a bit -- at least 1/4 cup), some margarine (2 tbsp. or so), a splash of soy milk and then enough icing sugar to get the consistency you like.
Veggie Prairie Girl Rambles
I was thinking I'd like some chocolate to go with this peanut butter so I melted some chocolate chips...dipped the tops of a few of my cupcakes and then just decorated the outside edges with the peanut butter icing. They don't look as nice on the photo as they did in real but it will give you an idea! I'm on a nutmeg kick right now and I'm thinking next time I might grate a little nutmeg in the cupcake batter recipe. I'm not 100% sure but it sounds like it might be a good thing. Enjoy!
I thought these were going to be called your Elvis cupcakes. Peanut butter icing on a fluffy banana cupcake. Mmm. These were soooo good. I've consumed far too much gluten this week thanks to your cooking, but it's been so worth it.
ReplyDeleteWow! These look & sound amazing! I like the name Elvis cupcakes too!
ReplyDeleteI love Elvis, always have, always will :) and I wanted to name them as such but that ISA girl (Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World) -- well it sounded from my internet search that she named her P&B cupcake that and I didn't like want to steal her idea so hence the other name! I don't have that cookbook so I wasn't 100% sure but so be it! Anyhow it doesn't matter -- the important thing is that these are honestly the lightest textured vegan cupcake I've ever created and they were amazing! I don't know what altitude you are at Tami but apparently that can affect outcome of baking. I read that when baking cakes at higher altitudes if you're having problems with them sinking it could be that you need an extra 2-4 tablespoons flour added to your batter. I was having problems with that and it did seem better with extra flour. These were honestly so light that the icing threatened to topple them over! Granted I did put quite a bit on there but it looks soooo much prettier.
ReplyDeleteMaybe my bananas were bigger than your bananas but... I ended up with 18 cupcakes!
ReplyDeleteI left off the gingerale and put a bit of powdered ginger, and I think I am going to modify it a bit more to replace coconut milk with coconut yogurt. The VCTOTW cookbook uses a lot of yogurt and the like, and that's an easier thing to open and finish off than a can of coconut milk!
I used the peanut butter icing from VCTOTW, and stuffed them with the chocolate mousse from VCTOTW. Topped with organic marischino cherries.