Peanut Butter Cupcakes with a Chocolate Icing

My Daddy is a die hard Reese's fan and he passed that right onto me. We are definitely peanut butter lovers and there ain't no doubt about that. I decided that I would make him some special cupcakes for his birthday this year and oh boy did he love them. They are not hard to make. You could even go the easier route and just get cake box mix and add in peanut butter. I decided to make them from scratch just so my name would be written all over them and I would not be sharing them with Betty or Duncan. Although sometimes Aunt Betty and Uncle Duncan just cant help but to assist me in some of my desserts.

Such a beauty!!!!

So these cupcakes were not hard to make at all. They were actually quite easy. I did not have a recipe on hand for this cupcake I just knew that I wanted a peanut butter cupcake and a milk chocolate icing.

For the Peanut butter cupcake I used the following recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup chunky or smooth peanut butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup milk (I used 2% milk)
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin tin cups with paper cupcake liners.

Instructions:

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

Using a stand mixer, beat the butter, peanut butter and brown sugar, on medium speed, until smooth and ligh in color, about 1 minute. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl, as needed. Mix in the egg. Add the vanilla and beat for 1 minute, or until the batter is smooth. On low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and mixing just until the flour is incorporated and the batter looks smooth.

Fill each paper liner with batter, about 1/3 inch below the top of the liner. Bake just until the tops feel firm and are lightly browned, about 20 minutes. There will be a few cracks on top. Cool the cupcakes for 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack. Carefully remove cupcakes from pan to finish cooling.

Then for the Chocolate Icing i used the following recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup butter - softened
4 cups confectioner's sugar
1 1/4 cups baking cocoa powder (I use the Hershey's cocoa powder)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk

Instructions:

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter.

Mix in sugar, vanilla, and cocoa

Slowly add in milk.

That is it. Very simple. I then placed the icing in a piping bag and went to town on my peanut butter cupcakes turning them into a Reese's cupcake. I then garnished the top of the cupcake with a resse's cup.

Let's just say my dad's mouth was drooling and he wanted to eat all 12 of them. These cupcakes were pretty rich and went great with a cup of coffee or a glass of milk for you non coffee drinkers like me.