Chocolate & Banana Cupcakes with PB Buttercream

I've been dying to make peanut butter frosting for a while now.  I was waiting for a reason to make these, but then decided I needed no reason and just whipped some up.  I love this recipe because it's a one bowl batter.  My FAVORITE kind.

Now, I wanted to make these really strong in banana flavor, so I used banana extract and did not add the typical spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc).  If you wanted to turn these into a muffin, I'd suggest adding a few spices, using a bit of brown sugar instead of white and creating a crumble for the top.  But, since I'm topping these with a peanut butter frosting, I really wanted a strong banana flavor not to be overwhelmed by the frosting.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
Makes 18 cupcakes

1 ½ cups flour
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
4 ripe medium bananas, smashed
2 large eggs
½ tablespoon banana extract
¼ cup sour cream
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.  Line cupcake pan with liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Make a well in the middle of the flour and add in the melted butter, bananas,  eggs, banana extract and sour cream.  Mix together with a whisk about 10 strokes.
4. Add the chocolate chips. Switch to a spatula, scrape the sides of the bowl and mix another 10 strokes.
5. Fill liners ⅔-3/4 full with batter.
6. Bake 22-24 minutes or until tops of cupcakes are golden brown.
7. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Peanut Butter Frosting

Makes enough to frost 18 cupcakes

12 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup peanut butter, heaping
2 ¼ cups powdered sugar, sifted
⅓ cup milk or heavy cream
pinch of salt (optional)

melted chocolate
banana slices

1. Cream the butter until smooth.  Add the peanut butter and cream together on high until smooth.
2. ½ cup at a time, beat in the powdered sugar.  In between sugar additions, add 1-2 tablespoon milk.  You may not need all the milk, but you will use all the sugar.  (I used the heavy whipping cream and only used about half of the ⅓ of a cup I poured out.)
3. Add the pinch of salt and mix together until smooth and fluffy.  (The salt is added to cut the sweetness, if you like a super sweet frosting, omit the salt.)
4. Pipe frosting onto cupcakes.
5. Drizzle melted chocolate over frosting and garnish with a fresh banana slice.