Black River Cafe Cupcakes

These were made as a tribute to the delicious banana chocolate chip pancakes at the Black River Cafe in Oberlin. They're incredibly moist banana cupcakes filled with chocolate chips and topped with maple buttercream. The original banana cupcake recipe is from Martha, although I found it made way more than 12 normal cupcakes. I had to overfill all of the cups and I still had enough batter left over for 2 more. But that probably had something to do with all the chocolate chips I added. Also, her recipe says to bake them for 25 or 30 minutes, but mine were done - though still extremely moist - at 20. You can choose to follow her recipe; what follows is what I did.



Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar (I used light brown cause it was what I had)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted or just seriously softened
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas)
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (or a little less, if you don't have the guts)

Directions

Preheat the ovento 350 and assemble your paper liners or silicone cups or whatever you use. Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt)in a small mixing bowl. Mash the bananas with a fork in a large mixing bowl until they turn into pudding. Whisk in the sugar until it melts. Whisk in the butter until everything is smooth, then beat in the eggs and vanilla. You can puree this if you want - pureeing the wet ingredients makes for a fluffy texture in some recipes, like the banana walnut muffins below - but I think these cupcakes are best with a few small banana chunks. Still, you do want this pretty smooth.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing minimally. Add the chocolate chips when it's half-mixed and then continuing mixing until incorporated, always keeping in mind that cupcake batter is best when it's mixed less.

Fill the cups not quite to the top and bake for 20 - 22 minutes, until a fork/toothpick comes out clean. Top with chilled maple buttercream frosting and serve to anyone looking for a taste of Oberlin.

Maple Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

3 tbs maple syrup
2 tbs butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
around 2 cups powdered sugar

Directions

Beat the maple syrup and butter together in a bowl. This would be a lot easier if the butter was melted but that'll ruin the consistency so tough luck. Add the vanilla and some of the sugar and mix till smooth. Keep adding sugar until you get the desired consistency (may take more than 2 cups). Chill it for a bit, especially if you're going to pipe it, and then pipe or just spread on your delicious cupcakes.

My friends Matt and Kurt, current students, enjoy a taste of Oberlin:





The gorgeous insides.



You know, I could really go for one of these right now. Hell yes.