Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

 

Does that cupcake not look absolutely yummy? I think so, and it sort of happened by accident. You see, I had to make cupcakes for my youngest to take to preschool. At first I thought all the cupcakes would be chocolate but I thought that I would spare the teachers' nerves and just do vanilla. Plus, it was the only flavor that I had in the pantry. While getting the mix going, I knew that only 12 cupcakes would be going to the preschool so that of course left 12 cupcakes here for us to eat.

 

Well, I thought that here was my chance to change things up a bit and try something new. I was in the mood for chocolate so after I followed the directions on the back of the box for the vanilla cupcakes I poured half of the mixture into 12 cupcake liners for the preschool, then I decided to play with the remaining mix. I thought, heck, if I screw it up its only 12 cupcakes, right?!

 

 

Ok, so with 1/2 of the mixture in the bowl, I added 1/4 cup of cocoa and 3 to 4  tablespoons of coffee.  Mixed it all together and then filled the remaining 12 cupcakes liners with the new chocolate mixture and baked the cupcakes according to the directions on the back of the box.

 

After the cupcakes cooled, I started on the frosting. I made a basic vanilla buttercream frosting.

 

3 cups confectioners' sugar

1 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Then I used this frosting to decorate the cupcakes for the preschool and for the frosting that I had left over I added....

1/3 cup of peanut butter (you may add more, just be careful, the more you add, the thicker the frosting)

mixed well and frosted the chocolate cupcakes.

Melted chocolate and drizzled on top.

 

That was it, simple and yummy, especially with a glass of milk!

 

The cupcakes were moist and the combination of the chocolate and peanut butter were just the trick for my chocolate craving. 

 

Let us take one more look......



Thank goodness that I only had 12 of these and that I shared...........I could have eaten them all, but I didn't.

Looking forward to baking lots of Christmas goodies soon, there are a few that I make every year. And this year, I am looking forward to surprising some neighbors with some of those goodies too! It is always more fun when you share!

Do you have any baking traditions at Christmas?