Lena's Lunchbox

i have a friend, cy, who eats like no one i’ve ever seen. he’s happiest in a state of food coma, stomach contentedly protruding and eyes drooping shut. he readily devours the leftover baked goods i bring to school on a daily basis. unless they contain a trace of banana. the curved, yellow, potassium-rich fruit is his arch nemesis.

for cy’s birthday last year, i made him a lemon cake with lemon frosting (his favorite) and hid a few slices of banana between the layers. the rage and betrayal he felt upon finding them was.. alarming. i felt super bad.

so today, i was planning on making ‘elvis’ cupcakes – peanut butter and bacon frosting on a BANANA base – but a flashback to cy’s reaction reminded me that banana-haters do exist, and maybe they want a recipe with peanut butter and bacon sans the banana.

makes twelve cupcakes

for the cupcakes, i used my trusted dark chocolate cake recipe and baked them for half an hour.

frosting (adapted from brown eyed baker):

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter (Jif is best)
• 5 tbsp butter, softened
• 3/4 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tbsp heavy cream
• 2 slices cooked bacon, crumbled

beat the sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt until well-combined. add the cream and beat until silky. fold in almost all of the bacon, reserving some to sprinkle on top.

to assemble, spread the frosting on the cupcakes with a knife or offset spatula and sprinkle on some more bacon. a glass of milk is mandatory with these.