These Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup banana cupcakes turned out just as well as I could’ve hoped on the first try. The idea came from my friend Saundrah, and within 24 hours of her suggesting it, I was in the kitchen (even though I probably should’ve been doing laundry). They were pretty simple, especially because the results look really impressive and complicated.
I used this banana cake recipe from allrecipes.com for the base.
For the cupcakes:
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 T baking soda
1 pinch salt
1/2 c. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 c. granulated sugar
3/4 c. light brown sugar
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed (or finely chopped—I tossed mine in a little lemon juice to keep them from browning)
2/3 c. buttermilk
24 large Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (or small, if you prefer a higher cake to candy ratio—both work well).
all-purpose flour
For the ganache:
8 oz. good quality bittersweet chocolate
3/4 c. heavy cream
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Whisk all dry ingredients together in a medium bowl and set aside.
Cream butter, and both white and brown sugars together in a mixing bow until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Then mix in mashed banana. Add flour mixture, alternating with the buttermilk, until all combined.
Pour a heaping spoonful of batter into the bottom of lined muffin tins. Coat the Reese’s Peanut Butter cups (large or small, I prefer large because I’m a glutton) in a little flour, shaking off excess. Plop the peanut butter cups onto the batter, and then cover with another heaping spoonful of batter (or more, if needed—it should cover the top and all sides of the PB cup, but not reach the top of the muffin tin).
Bake for about 30 minutes, or until cake is set.
Let cool completely.
To make the ganache, slowly melt the chocolate into the cream over a double boiler. Use med-low heat, stirring constantly to keep it from burning on the bottom.
Pour a spoonful of the ganache over each cooled cake, spreading to the edges. If you’d like, top with a banana chip!
(Created by Megan Seling for bakeitinacake.com.)
