Reese's Cupcakes

I hope you guys aren't getting bored of peanut butter and chocolate baked goods. I hope you never do. Because they constitute about 35% of what we bake and post about on this blog

Now, these are not your ordinary Reese's cupcakes. I was flipping through some cookbooks because my uncle was in town, so of course we needed baked goods, and I found an assortment of recipes and put them together.

I decided that instead of doing a chocolate cupcake base (boooring, and done so many times before), I decided to do a peanut butter one, because I don't think I've ever had a peanut butter cupcake. Like ever.

That was definitely a good choice. If I were to bake them again, I would definitely only keep them in for the suggested 20 minutes, because they got a wee bit dry. But they were still good.

And for the frosting, I simply could not decide whether to use chocolate or peanut butter frosting. Chocolate frosting would be a little boring (because I used Joy the Baker's again :), which as delicious as that is, I have used it quite a lot), and peanut butter would make it just a plain peanut butter cupcake, which would be overwhelming. Solution? I swirled them together.

Verdict? Delicious. Amazing. Stupendous. Spectacular. (And no, I did not use a thesaurus to come up with those words).

I also wanted to try this thing I had seen pictures of before:

Don't they look awesome? Progressively smaller cupcakes stacked on top of each other that aren't really cupcakes but are actually Reese's? So I decided I had to try this.

Haha, no. It didn't really work out like it looked in the picture (obviously). But it still tasted delicious. That's what really matters. It's the true meaning of baking. 

But I hope to attempt this again sometime soon with a better strategy. So it looks as awesome as it does in that picture.

Because of the sort of smushed-in look of my Reese's, these aren't the most photogenic things in the world. But just imagine the taste. Doesn't it just make your mouth water?

Now you should go make some.

-Audrey

Reese's Cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes (From 500 Cupcakes):

1 cup (two sticks) sweet butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 cups cake flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
4 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup peanut butter

For the peanut butter frosting (From The Cake Mix Doctor):

1 cup creamy peanut butter

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature

2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

3 to 4 tablespoons milk

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

For the chocolate frosting (Courtesy of Joy the Baker):

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/3 cup Ovaltine

For the cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place 18 paper baking cups in muffin pans. Combine the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, eggs, and buttermilk in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in the peanut butter until well combined. Spoon the batter into the cups. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes. Remove pans from oven and cool for five minutes. Then remove the cupcakes and cool on a rack.

Next make the frostings. 

For the chocolate frosting:

Cream together butter, cocoa powder and salt. Butter mixture will be very thick. Turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add powdered sugar. Turn mixer on low and mix in powdered sugar while adding milk and vanilla extract. As the sugar incorporates, raise the speed of the mixer to beat the frosting. Beat until smooth. In a 1-cup measuring glass, stir together heavy cream and Ovaltine. Turn mixer speed to medium and pour cream mixture into frosting in a slow, steady stream, until you’ve reached your desired consistency.  You may not need the full amount of Ovaltine and cream.  Spread or pipe onto cupcakes.  Yuuuuuuuuum!!

For the peanut butter frosting:

Place the peanut butter and butter in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds. Stop the machine. Add the confectioners’ sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, and the vanilla. Blend with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is well combined, 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the frosting lightens and is fluffy, 1 minute more. Blend in up to 1 tablespoon milk if the frosting seems too stiff.