It’s so much fun to hang out with other food bloggers: they just get it. These are the people who understand the importance of two new flavours of Oreos. Who hate salad in a bag as much as I do. They know the feeling of making a co-worker’s eyes glaze over after you’ve been talking about local fruit for half an hour.  I love these guys.

Last weekend a few of my peeps from #FBC13 got together for a little potluck, and it was a delicious feast of amazingness:

• Retro Meatballs with Homemade Ketchup (Christina!)
• Spicy Mac & Cheese (Jenny!)
• Lemon Chicken Drumsticks (Meg!)
• Greek Quinoa Salad (Lou!)
• Fennel Citrus Salad (Charmian!)
• Garlic Cheese Bread (Heather!)

Everything was incredible! And of course food bloggers understand the need for three desserts! Meg made some amazing Nutella Ice Cream, Lou made some delicious Bacon, Date & Chocolate Chip Cookies, and I brought these Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting. The lovely Meg, who hosted us at her home, is expecting Baby #2 and craving banana desserts like whoa, so who am I to deny a pregnant lady what she wants?

Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Source: My two faves – Cupcakes from Anna Olson, Frosting from Barefoot Contessa At Home

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes

1 1/4 cups cake & pastry flour (use regular flour in a pinch)

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, room temperature, cubed

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3 bananas)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

Frosting

1 cup smooth peanut butter (not natural)

1 cup icing sugar

1/3 cup whipping cream

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, room temperature

3/4 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

+ salted peanuts for decoration

Directions

1. For cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350, and line muffin tin with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the butter and mix together with a fork or your fingers until the mixture is crumbly and there are no big bits of butter.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the mashed banana, egg and vanilla until combined. Pour over the dry ingredients and mix until smooth and combined (you can just use a whisk or spatula, don’t need an electric mixer).
4. Pour batter into liners and bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cupcakes comes out clean. Cool cupcakes completely before frosting.
5. For the frosting, add everything to a bowl (I used my food processor) and mix until smooth and combined. Pipe onto cupcakes and top with peanuts if you want.