Cooking with Kids: Banana Peanut Butter Cupcakes

My kids LOVE to help me bake and cook. My 4 year old kept begging for me to let her make up her own recipe. So with some help, this is what she came up with. They were pretty darn good! The frosting we originally had was a chocolate custard mousse, which was AMAZING, but I found the flavors didn't really compliment each other well in the cupcake. So instead of providing that recipe here, I am providing a chocolate icing recipe that fits these cupcakes perfectly.

Banana Peanut Butter Cupcakes

-1/2 C butter, softened
-3/4 C sugar
-1/4 tsp salt
-1 tsp vanilla
-1/2 C Peanut Butter
-2 eggs
-2 tbsp buttermilk
-1 1/2 C flour
-1 1/2 tsp baking powder
-1 C mashed bananas

-cream together butter, sugar, peanut butter, salt, and vanilla until light and fluffy
-add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each egg
-sift together the flour and baking powder
-starting with the flour mixture, add a small portion of it to the cake mixture and gently mix in, stirring only until just incorporated
-add the buttermilk and mix again
-add more flour, mix and then a portion of the bananas, mix
-keep adding flour and bananas alternatively until everything in mixed in.
-try not to over mix or your cupcakes will be tough and chewing instead of light and fluffy. 
-spoon batter 3/4 full into lined muffin tins

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes 

(or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean)

Chocolate Icing

-1 C milk chocolate chips

-1/2 C cream
-2 tbsp butter
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-about 2 C icing sugar

-in a microwave safe dish, melt the chocolate chips and the cream together on high at 30 sec intervals, stirring each time until you have a smooth ganache
-in a mixing bowl add butter, chocolate mixture, vanilla, and about a cup of the icing sugar. Mix until fully incorporated.
-add more icing sugar until desired icing consistency is reached.
(keep in mind that the chocolate will harden quite a bit once it cools, so your icing doesn't have to be super thick)
-pipe or spread onto your cupcakes and enjoy!