Chocolate and peanut butter may be a match made in heaven, but you know what’s also a match made in heaven? Banana and peanut butter!
So when I decided to make some vegan banana cupcakes, the natural choice for the frosting was peanut butter frosting!
I was at first a bit resistant to peanut butter frosting (I know – crazy!) because of having to use both butter AND peanut butter. To me that seemed like it might be a little bit of overkill. Like can’t peanut butter fulfill the role of both?
Nope! Nope nope nope. I have been forced to acknowledge over time exactly why this will never work. The texture of peanut butter plus powdered sugar is just not at all right for a frosting. It’s great for the filling in a peanut butter cup! But not for a frosting. For some reason, the vegan butter/margarine is just essential to the velvety texture of a frosting.
So now that we’ve cleared that up about the peanut butter frosting, how about those cupcakes?
These vegan banana cupcakes are moist, spongey, and totally delicious!
They are less dense than vegan banana muffins, which is great because they are cupcakes! You want more of the light and fluffy thing going on, which you have with these.
I’ve had to be a bit flexible on the baking time, it hasn’t been as straightforward as it would usually/ideally be. Somewhere between 30 and 40 minutes they are ready. Check them at 30 minutes and if a toothpick inserted into the center doesn’t come out clean, put them back in for a bit longer. Up to 40 minutes may be required.
You will love these vegan banana cupcakes, they are:
- Moist and spongey
- Light and fluffy
- Topped with a velvety peanut butter frosting
- Easy to make
- Deliciously aromatic while baking!
Keep them covered at room temperature and consume within a few days.
What do you think of these vegan banana cupcakes? Let me know in the comments! Please also rate the recipe if you make it and let us know how it worked out! Tag any pics #lovingitvegan on instagram so we don’t miss them!
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Vegan Banana Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Banana Cupcakes:
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour (250g)
- 1 cup Light Brown Sugar (200g)
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 1 and 1/3 cups Mashed Ripe Banana (300g)
- 1/2 cup Soy Milk (120ml) or other non-dairy milk
- 1 tsp Lemon Juice
- 3 Tbsp Coconut Oil (45g)
- 2 Tbsp Applesauce
- 1 Flax Egg 1 Tbsp Ground Flaxseed + 3 Tbsp Hot Water
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
For the Peanut Butter Frosting:
- 2 cups Powdered Sugar (250g)
- 1/3 cup Vegan Butter (75g)
- 1/3 cup Creamy Peanut Butter (83g)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Tbsp Soy Milk or other non-dairy milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- Mix the lemon juice with the soy milk and allow to curdle.
- Add the bananas to a blender jug along with the soy milk and lemon juice, coconut oil and applesauce. Blend until smooth. Pour this over the dry ingredients and mix in.
- Prepare your flax egg by mixing 1 Tbsp of flaxseed meal with 3 Tbsp of Hot Water and allowing to sit for a minute to become gloopy. Add the flax egg to the mixing bowl along with the vanilla and mix in.
- Line a cupcake tray with liners and divide the batter evenly between them. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean.
- Transfer the cupcakes to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare your peanut butter frosting. Add the powdered sugar, vegan butter, peanut butter, vanilla and soy milk to the bowl of an electric mixer and starting at slow speed gradually increase speed until the frosting is thick and smooth.
- Frost the cupcakes and top with some crushed peanuts (optional).
Nutrition
So I made these… but they are definitely not the same dark brown colour? Used exact ingredients too ????
This was my first attempt at making any type of vegan cake and it turned out amazing! My non vegan husband loves banana cake so I made them for him but I’m I’m probably the one who’s going to eat most of them. They are so good!
Awesome Kim! Thanks for sharing!
Hi! Would adding chocolate chips to the cupcakes be a nice touch?
Yes! Very nice indeed!
Hi!
I’ve made the Vegan Banana Cupcakes With Peanut Butter Frosting so many times and my friends go made for them! Can I make this into a loaf cake? Do I need to adjust the recipe at all? I assume for a loaf cake the cook time will be around 40mins?
Many thanks
Rosie
Hi Rosie, sure I think it would be great as a loaf cake. I would keep the recipe as is, but baking time would increase to about 50-60 minutes. 🙂
Wow! Such a great result, thank you for this recipe.
Awesome! Thanks Daisy! 🙂
Most delicious! ????
Thanks Geeta! 🙂
Hello!
I’m planning to make these for my daughter’s birthday. Can I use vegan butter instead of coconut oil? I just happen to have a ton of vegan butter right now!
Thank you!
Hi Melissa! I think it would be fine! All the best. 🙂
I didn’t even get to try one, but my non-vegan testers were very impressed. I subbed extra banana for the applesauce, and the vegan butter here is very soft (and the climate is suuuuper warm) so I subbed half of the butter in the frosting for veg shortening/hard margarine stuff. Topped with shaved non-dairy chocolate. Rave reviews all around! Noting that mine took way less time than recommended to cook (maybe because my muffin tin is dark?), more like 23 min.
Also, forgot to mention: I had some extra batter (after 12 very full large muffin cups) so I put the rest into a baking cup and stuck it in the microwave for 1 minute. Overflowed a bit but texture was perfect! Can’t really tell the difference other than appearance.
So glad you enjoyed it Ali! Thanks for sharing and the awesome rating! Also cool tip about the leftover batter, smart! 🙂
Can I prep the frosting a day earlier and keep it in refrigerator until time to frost the cake?
Yes sure! If the frosting is too thick to spread/pipe from being in the fridge then let it sit on the counter for a bit until more spreadable.
Did you cut the tops off your cupcakes before frosting?
Hi Kirstie, no I never do that. If you take a look at one of our recipes that has a video, like our vegan vanilla cupcakes, you’ll see I just pipe frosting on top of the dome, never cut off the tops.
Thank you! I am making these for my son’s first birthday party tomorrow. It’s a Curious George theme! I have lots to do so I made the cupcakes last night and they turned out amazing. Frosting today 🙂
I don’t have an applesauce available in the stores. What can I replace?
You could replace it with mashed banana.
how much banana?
10.5oz/300g.
Banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting! There’s a combination which is tasty and different.