Banana Bread

Once upon a time, I found myself at my parents house wanting to bake something but was faced with limited ingredients. Well, I whipped together a pretty decent banana bread.

Ok, so everyone has their own version of banana bread, its just so versatile. My favorite is still from The PPK. But go ahead and give this one a try.

Banana Bread

• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 3 very ripe bananas
• 3 tablespoons Earth Balance margarine
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350º F. In a glass measuring cup or small bowl add almond milk and vinegar. Set aside to curdle. In a small mixing bowl mash the bananas well and add Earth Balance and maple. In a large mixing bowl combine remaining ingredients (flour through nutmeg). Add milk mixture and banana mixture to the flour and mix well. Pour into greased loaf pan and bake about an hour. Bread is done when toothpick inserted into middle comes out clean. 

Banana Cupcakes w/ Almond Buttercream

I'm sure you're wondering why I would make the same cupcake twice. Well, frankly, I couldn't decide which combination I wanted in the first place. Banana cake or almond butter cake? I just knew that I wanted banana and almond butter in cupcake form. So I went ahead and made 2 batches of cupcakes with opposite cake/frosting combinations. In the end I couldn't decide which ones I actually liked better! So I'll let you all be the judge.


Banana Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 bananas
• 1/4 cup oil
• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup brown sugar or sucanat

Preheat oven to 375º F. Line/grease cupcake pan/muffin tin.
Combine flour baking powder & soda and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, cream bananas. Add oil, almond milk, vanilla and sugar. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, combine well. Pour into cupcake pan and bake for about 16 minutes.

Almond Butter Frosting

• 1/2 cup Earth Balance margarine
• 1/4 cup almond butter
• 1/4-1/2 cup powdered sugar

With a hand mixer or stand mixer cream together Earth Balance and almond butter. Slowly add sugar a little at a time. You might not need the full 1/2 cup, so keep an eye on it.

Almond Butter Cupcakes w/ Banana Buttercream

Since my favorite place to grab some noms, Sticky Fingers, has just won Cupcake Wars I thought this would be a good time to put up my cupcake recipe series.

I made banana bread one day and was enjoying it slathered with almond butter. I love the two flavors together, a kind of rich, sweet, creamy, nuttiness. I began to think that I would really fancy a cupcake with the same flavors. So I started playing...

Almond Butter Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes

• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup almond butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar or sucanat
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup oil

Preheat oven to 375º F. Grease cupcake pan, or line with liners.
In a glass measuring cup vigorously whisk together the almond milk and flax. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder & soda and salt. In a separate bowl mix almond butter, brown sugar vanilla and oil until well combined. Pour the milk mixture and sugar mixture into flour and gently combine. Pour batter into cupcake pan, filling each 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 10-13 minutes, until a toothpick (or in my case, a skewer) inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely before topping with banana buttercream.

*Make sure these cupcakes cool off completely before you handle them. Otherwise, they will crumble and fall apart. These babies are delicate!

Banana Buttercream

• 1/2 cup Earth Balance margarine
• 1 banana
• 1 cup powdered sugar

Using a hand mixer or stand mid mixer, cream Earth Balance and banana. Slowly add sugar until desired consistency is reached.