Right now, my garden is aflame with a brilliant butterfly weed, orange-smoothie hibiscus flowers with hearts of blood, pink and white echinacea blooms, pink and yellow dahlias, snow-white daisies and yellow daisies, lavender clematis and delicately hued hollyhocks, to name just a few.
Desi and I bought our fixer-upper home during the hot housing market of 2005. In other words, we paid too much for a house that needed more work than our wallets could handle. But we fell in love with the 1925 Sears Home– a charmer with its historic trim and spacious rooms. We thought our three dogs would love the large (for the Washington-area) backyard shaded by a towering Holly and a beautiful Oak.
Over the years, we have worked to make it our home. For the first few years, weekends were taken over by “house” work– Desi spent hours on a ladder steaming the walls and scraping painted-off wallpaper from every single room. I learned all about staining wood floors and spackling and sealing superficial cracks in the ancient but still beautiful plaster. Both of us became such quick painters that we joked about starting a business.
Our old house is certainly a money pit. We have spent nearly extra penny we had hiring people to do the work we couldn’t do– repair the broken-down chimney, waterproof the basement, replace the nearly century-old water pipes and a kitchen that was as old as the house itself, add a fence to keep our rambunctious doggies in, among many, many other projects.
With all of our attention focused on the house, the yard suffered. When we bought the house it had been a nice enough yard, with a neat lawn and a few flowering plants, mostly hostas and day lilies. Under attack from three dogs, it soon began to show signs of wear and tear. So this year, although our house project is far from complete, I’ve decided to take the yard in hand. As anyone who knows anything about gardening knows, that’s a lofty project for the best of yards, and especially for one in the shape that ours is.
Let me backtrack here, though. I haven’t neglected everything (just the lawn and the edging and the weeding and…okay, let’s not make a list). But I have been planting some perennials assiduously each year and now, year after year, they have been returning and rewarding us with some beautiful color. We have also planted flowering trees and bushes over the ashes of our three beloved pets because, honestly, we didn’t know what else to do with them and I didn’t want the ashes in the home– it just seemed so…morbid.
We shared our brilliant idea with the guy at the nursery who assured us that the ashes would do the plants a world of good. So Freddie’s now a brilliant-red crepe myrtle who is about to flower for his third year, Pubm’s a delicately beautiful rhododendron who bursts into lavender blooms with deep-purple centers every spring, and Lucy’s a stunning pink rose.
They still make me happy when I look out the window and see them smiling in the sun.
***I had a couple of overripe bananas hanging out in the kitchen and I put them to good use with these delicious Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting.
This is a very easy cupcake to make and you likely already have all the ingredients you will need sitting around. The two bananas in the recipe give it just the right hint of banana flavor, although if you want a more intense experience try adding three bananas and reducing the liquid in the recipe.
The peanut butter frosting is mindblowingly good, and it pairs rather naturally and beautifully with the bananas. I added some coconut oil to both the cupcakes and the frosting which made these cupcakes even more amazing, if that was possible, and kept the frosting really smooth.
Try ’em. You’re gonna love it!
- For the Banana Cupcakes:
- Dry ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Wet ingredients:
- 1 cup of mashed , very ripe bananas (2 large bananas. If you want an intense banana flavor, use 1 1/2 cups of banana puree-- about 3 large bananas-- and reduce the amount of nondairy milk to 1/2 cup)
- 1 cup nondairy milk , like almond or soy
- 1/3 cup coconut oil
- 2/3 rd cup sugar
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- For the Peanut Butter Frosting:
- 1 cup smooth peanut butter
- 8 tbsp vegan butter , like Earth Balance
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- Make the Banana Cupcakes:
- Sift together the dry ingredients in one bowl.
- Mix the wet ingredients in another bowl.
- Pour the well-mixed ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until you have a smooth batter. Do not overmix.
- Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners. Divide the batter equally between the cups. Smooth down the tops and bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 25-27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
- Remove the cupcakes to a rack, let them cool in the tin for about 10 minutes, then unmold and let them cool completely on the rack. These cupcakes are gorgeously golden.
- Make the Peanut Butter Frosting:
- Cream together the peanut butter, vegan butter, and coconut oil until they are smooth and fluffy, about two minutes.
- Slowly add the powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, and mix well after each addition. If the frosting is too stiff, you can add a little more coconut oil.
- Frost the cupcakes once they have cooled completely.
These cupcakes are off to the Let’s Cook With Nuts event. Thanks for the heads-up, Nayna.
(C) All recipes and photographs copyright of Holy Cow! Vegan Recipes.
love your garden and beautiful, eye captivating flowers …Like your easy to make cupcakes, so delicious and yummy frosting on top…
I love me a good banana cupcake! I am yet to try peanut butter frosting, PB usually gives me a *severe* migraine, but I have to try it once. I do love PB..
Your garden flowers are lovely.
Lovely & beautiful looking flowers.. Such a variety & colour u have out there !! And the banana cupcakes too look yum !
My! What beautiful flowers! The cupcakes look deliciuos too … especially the frosting. 🙂
Mmmmm Banana cupcakes with PB frosting are my fav! Your recipe looks awesome. Can’t wait to try them!
beautiful garden…luv these cupcakes..
Anu’s Healthy Kitchen – Broken Wheat, Oats, Almonds and Coconut Ladoo
These look delicious pls do link them to Lets cook with nuts event at simply.food
Omg, love ur garden and stunning flowers, very bright and fresh..Those cupcakes looks extremely attractive and love that frosting.
Tempting clicks . Looks yummy
There is so much I can relate to in this post – buying a house when real estate was at it’s prime, spending many hours on home renovations and gardening. Our garden also has some special places where we like to go and reflect – red rose bushes planted over our first dear cat Samba, and of course Jasper’s little corner with a Japanese Maple surround by perennials.
You have some gorgeous flowers in your garden and I especially love Lucy’s stunning pink rose! Your cupcakes look beautiful too!
Hi Vaishali,
How did these cupcakes taste without frosting?
Also with the given proportion, I believe I can make 9X9 inch square cake. How much baking time would you recommend?
Thanks
They taste fabulous without the frosting. But if you want to bake a cake I’d recommend my banana cake recipe.
Vaishali,
This turned out great!! I had 2 overripe bananas.. made the batter, put it in the muffin trays and froze it overnight. Baked it today morning and the kids got to eat muffins for breakfast..Didn’t have time to make the frosting, but was wondering if you had any ideas to incorporate peanut butter into the batter itself?
Thanks
Ambica
Ambica, that’s wonderful! If you wanted to add the peanut butter to the recipe, you might try replacing the coconut oil with an equal amount of peanut butter and 2 tbsp of applesauce. Whisk them together well and then add.
I need to be roasting some beets, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank you for this recipe. Wonderful! Loved the frosting, although I just spread it on flat since I transport these to have at Starbucks. My only tweak was to make 1/3 of the flour whole wheat flour so I wouldn’t feel so guilty about having all white flour. It probably made them just a little drier. So good!
I sometimes forget about your blog—but thanks to this recipe, it will now be a regular visit!
The flower photos are glorious!
Hi Ellen, so happy to hear you liked these. Thanks for the feedback and your kind words. 🙂
I’m two weeks into a vegan diet, and I was thrilled that these came out as delicious as they looked. Thank you so much for this recipe; especially during this transition, it is such a relief to find treats like these that even a committed omnivore would love.
Hi Vaishali,
I tried the variation with the peanut butter in the batter and wanted to report back. It was very good – Nutty and the added saltiness from the peanut butter provided a wonderful contrast.
Thanks
Ambica
Hi Ambica, so happy you liked it. Thanks for letting me know!
Can we substitute canola oil for coconut oil?
Mukta, it should be fine for the cupcakes although might be runny in the frosting.
Baked these the other day and paired the cupcakes with a chocolate frosting. Heavenly!!! Thank you for the recipe!
Sam, so great to hear! Thanks for letting me know. 🙂
Hi
I love your vegan site. These are amazing. I have problem when I use coconut oil because it is not liquid like other oil. I used to melt it but I was told for muffins and cupcakes you cannot melt the coconut oil? Please help.