Peanut, Peanut Butter...

and CHOCOLATE!

Seriously. Who doesn't love it? I've seen a lot of chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting in the bakeries (and cupcakeries) about town, but a peanut butter cupcake isn't seen all too often. Well...I think I figured out why.

Although ridiculously tasty, these cupcakes pack a pretty sweet punch. The batter was a little dry, and therefore the final product was a bit dry as well (or...again...my oven. I just keep shaving time off of all my baked goods, to no avail!). I think my darling husband made an excellent suggestion, that paper liners may have helped to retain the moisture. The recipe I used called for a ganache to use with it. While the ganache was good...it just didn't cut it. I made a chocolate frosting instead, very traditional, yet exactly what these cupcakes needed.

That...and a LARGE glass of milk.

Side cupcake note: There was an interesting article in the Express today (for you non-DCers, that's the free version of the Washington Post we get here). While I love all of you who have had suggestions to start my own business, this is exactly what makes me hesitate: Half a dozen cupcake-centric shops opening in the DC metro area in the last 20 months! I think it's a bit risky, especially since cupcakes are so trendy. Check out the article here

We'll see though...The Hill doesn't have a cupcake shop (virtually the only corner of the city that doesn't!). Maybe I'll try my hand someday! In the meantime, enjoy these tasty peanut butter cupcakes, with chocolate frosting!

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

makes 12 cupcakes (yeah...12. I doubled it)

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• Rounded 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2/3 cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

Beat together peanut butter, butter, and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until blended, about 2 minutes. Add egg and vanilla and beat until fluffy, about 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture and milk alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture, then mix until just combined.

Divide batter among lined muffin cups (about two-thirds full) and bake in middle of oven until pale golden and a tester inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Turn cupcakes out onto a rack and cool completely.

Natalie's Chocolate Frosting (aka flying by the seat of my pants frosting)

• 1 stick butter
• 1 handful chocolate chips (semi-sweet)
• 1/2C unsweetened cocoa powder
• powdered sugar
• 1-3 Tbsp milk (plus some if you need it)

So I wish I could say I had this all planned out...but I really was just flying by the seat of my pants. I took a basic frosting recipe, and then I killed it with impatience and lack of required ingredients. So here's the gist of what I did:

Melt butter and chocolate chips in a small saucepan, remove from heat. Stir in cocoa powder until smooth. Pour the mixture in bowl of stand mixer, and mix with the whisk attachment on high to cool down your chocolate mixture. When you come back 5 minutes later to find that your chocolate is still ridiculously hot, put it in the freezer for a minute. Worry that you're going to mess it up and take it out. Feel the bowl...decide it's cool enough. Put bowl back in stand mixer, start adding powdered sugar.

This is where you'll think you totally screwed it up...it's going to look like wet sand.

Add some of the milk until the mixture smooths out. Add powdered sugar until you get the sweetness/consistency you like. If the mixture starts to get crumbly and dry, just keep mixing and adding little pours of milk. Once you get the consistency and sweetness you like, crank the mixer speed up to high to make the frosting nice and fluffy (this will whip some air into it). Decorate your cupcakes, and devour!

:) Yeah...somehow some pretty delicious frosting came out of this. Good luck!