Fresh Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Filling

This past January, my family took a trip to Washington, DC.  A few months prior to that, a girlfriend had been and had told me that she and her daughters went to see Georgetown Cupcakes -- you know, as in DC Cupcakes on TLC?  At the time that she told me this story, I didn't.  I'm embarrassed to admit that now...  I love cupcakes so I immediately looked the show up.  My friend was unable to get in and try any cupcakes due to the long lines.  I saw that you can order ahead and walk right in -- that's what they told Oprah or a morning show host or someone like that -- so I ordered one and a half dozen.  Did I mention that we went in January?  Why did I expect there to be a line around the building during snow and rain in January? More on that in a bit.
So we took the Metro to the closest stop at the end of a day of walking the Mall and then realized that it was one mile to the shop from the Metro stop.  Did I also mention that I had a 5 and 7 year old with me?  And that it was cold?  And that we hadn't had dinner?  We thought about grabbing a cab but we reasoned that it would be better to walk there and take a cab back so off we went.  I still have nightmares about that walk.  I had half of a left over cookie in my purse that I used to lure my children forward several times during that walk.  After what seemed like an eternity, we finally made it and walked right in -- in front of maybe 3 people -- a bit anti-climatic if you ask me.  We picked up our cupcakes and grabbed a table.  This is where you queue up the Hallelujah chorus...  Once each of us bit into our cupcakes, the journey was worth it!  They were delicious.  We ended up buying more before we left and we had to wait in line to do that. I brought some home to my girlfriends.  I couldn't bear the thought of not sharing them with the friend who had introduced me to this heavenly place.

I tell you this story because it is where I fell head over heels in love with their chocolate banana cupcake.  I mean, I want to take a trip back just to eat one.  So I figured that meant that I needed to come up with a recipe that I could make myself and I did!  I have worked on this one all year and it is ready to be shared.  Only, it's not chocolate.  I really wanted to focus on the banana!  And in this version, I added peanut butter ganache into center of the cupcake and peanut butter chips as a garnish.  You can blame it on Elvis.

I started by mashing up bananas.

I added the vanilla and eggs to the bananas because it all gets added in together.

I creamed the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Then I added in the banana mixture and combined that well.  Next was the flour mixture.  And last was the sour cream.  I filled my cupcake liners and let them bake.

After cooling, the cupcakes were ready to be filled with a ganache I made mixing peanut butter chips with cream in double boiler and letting them melt together into a smooth sauce.

Yum!

I just used a spoon to pour the filling into the holes I made using my apple corer.

These are topped with the Vanilla Bean-Cream Cheese Buttercream icing I've used before.

And then topped with a few peanut butter chips on top just because.  These take me back to that wonderful trip.  I still can't wait to visit again but until then, these always hit the spot!

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Fresh Banana Cupcakes          Printable recipe card here! 

½ cup butter, room temperature

1 ½ cup sugar

2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 medium bananas)

2 eggs, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups cake flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place cupcake liners in muffin pan.

Cream butter, slowly add sugar and beat until light.  Add banana, eggs and vanilla and beat well.  Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl.  Add to first mixture and blend.  Slowly add sour cream and beat until well blended.  Fill cupcake liners with ¼ cup batter each.  Bake 15-18 minutes.  Cool in pan on cooling rack.

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