I♥cuppycakes!

PB, Banana and Bacon Cupcakes (aka The Elvis)

Hello to all my cupcake lovelies.

Really! It is. (PROOF)

What better way to celebrate than with THE KING’S favorite peanut butter concoction?

No I’m not talking about King Tut, Don King, Martin Luther King Jr., Stephen King or King Kong (although that big skyscraper climbing primate might love this cupcake too).

I’m talking about The King of Rock n Roll.

He loved his peanut butter, banana and bacon… honey optional… sandwiches.

Now I have a confession. I had no idea who Elvis was until well into high school. Are all of you staring at the computer screen in disbelief with your mouth agape? Trust me. I get that a lot. But think about it. Where did you get your music history from? Your parents right? Well I’m a first generation Vietnamese so my parents didn’t have Elvis vinyls sitting around the livingroom or have stories about how they saw Elvis coming out of the bathroom at X airport and almost fainted. *waves at MIL*

So when I met my husband in college and he found out how little I knew about music history, he took it upon himself to school me. And that’s when I [couldn't] help falling in love with that hunka hunka burning love. Oh yeah. And Elvis too.

The Elvis
Recipe adapted from Cupcakes by Martha Stewart

Print this recipe

Makes about 12 cupcakes (I got 16 cupcakes)

INGREDIENTS

For the banana cupcakes
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1-1/2 cups mashed* bananas (I used 4 ripe bananas)
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

* I don’t mash up the bananas too much. I leave it more on the chunky versus the mushy side of mashing. Is that instruction too technical? haha

For Peanut Butter cream cheese frosting
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (I used creamy Jif peanut butter)
1-8 oz package cream cheese, softened (I used Neufchatel cheese)
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract

bacon, cooked** and cooled, cut into 1″ strips (I used thick cut honey glazed bacon)
honey, drizzle

** I cook my bacon under the oven broiler. Set at high for about 5 minutes. If I remember I’ll flip after 3 minutes. You might want to adjust time depending on how thick your bacon is or how crispy you want your bacon.

INSTRUCTIONS

To make cupcakes–
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners.

In a stand mixer, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Create a well in the flour mixture and add melted butter, mashed bananas, eggs and vanilla. Switch to a flat beater and mix until just combined. Try not to overmix.

You can use your hands to form a well but I used a plastic red cup. Easy peasy!

Fill cupcake liners about 1/2-2/3 full. Bake for about 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool completely on a wire cooling rack before frosting.

To make frosting—
In a stand mixer, fitted with a flat beater, cream the peanut butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Gradually add the powder sugar until well combined. Add vanilla extract.

Using a Wilton 1M (or your favorite star tip) pipe the frosting on each cupcake, drizzle with some honey and garnish with a bacon strip.

ENJOY!

Husband rating: A
He liked the banana “cake” and he liked the pb frosting but I can’t convince him that the bacon is suppose to be there. LOL

Wifey rating: N/A
I’m a self proclaimed banana hater so I didn’t rate this one since I’m obviously biased. But I’ll take all the leftover PB frosting!