Sasha's Kitchen: Garden Party Themed Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

I had recently made a cake with all kinds of flowers in a garden party theme, and then decided to reverse it a couple weekends later into cupcakes, with pretty little flowers made using the Wilton flower tip. Flowers are just so pretty to decorate with, and this made a truly lovely batch of cupcakes. I used made a batch of chocolate peanut butter cupcakes, with my favorite peanut butter frosting. Really, there's no better flavor combination for a cake or cupcake than chocolate and peanut butter! These are perfect for a lovely summer party.

Sasha's Garden Party Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Cupcakes (adapted from Julie Hasson)
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup smooth lowfat peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup whole milk

Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl - the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder. Beat the sugars and the butter in the  basin of a stand mixer until well combined. Then  beat in the peanut butter until smooth, followed by the egg and vanilla. Alternatively beat in the flour mixture and the milk and beat until smooth. Fill cupcake molds (lined) 3/4 of the way to the top and bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Peanut butter frosting
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter
pinch salt
1/2 cup creamy non-fat peanut butter
2 T milk

Vanilla buttercream (for decorating)
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 T milk
gel based food coloring in pink, purple and yellow

Beat together the ingredients for the peanut butter frosting for about five minutes in your stand mixer until smooth. Frost the cupcakes using a frosting bag.

Make the regular vanilla butter cream the same way. Once you have beaten together the ingredients into a smooth frosting, divide into three bowls and color with a drop or two of the gel food coloring. Make the petals using the wilton flower tip, and use a traditional dot tip to make the dot in the center with the yellow buttercream.

Sasha's Kitchen: Garden Party Themed Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Sasha's Kitchen: Designer Handbag Cupcakes

Next up in my cupcake series (this might be my last for a bit, as we are going on vacation over the holidays somewhere warm), I decided to do handbag cupcakes. I had thought about this for awhile, and had always considered making small handbags out of fondant or gum paste. However, I wanted to make these a bit more taste-friendly (I always take off the fondant to eat the cupcakes), so instead I decided to make each cupcake look like the front of a designer purse. I had initially planned on using either pipe cleaners or red shoestring licorice to create a handle as well, but couldn't find either in a pinch. I didn't really matter - I think they came out great. I bought some fine tips for my pastry bag so that I could pipe out the icing colors that I made to get detail on the handbags, and I used a tube for the black and red (all the other colors are homemade). And the cupcakes? They are delicious - I made chocolate peanut butter cupcakes with two kinds of frosting - chocolate and plain buttercream (which I dyed every color imaginable with my Ateco  gel food colorings). I will share the recipe below, but first, the cupcakes:

First, I did a couple of different Louis Vuitton styles (also pictured at the top).

Next I did a couple of Chanel cupcakes, which were pretty simple:

The Gucci ones were my favorites:

I did a colorful Birkin bag

And I also did a couple of Fendi ones too:

And now for the recipe - Its from my favorite cupcake book, Julie Hasson's 125 Best Cupcakes, with my own frosting recipes.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes (I did 1.5x the recipe below)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup milk (I used skim)

First, combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. In the basin of your electric stand mixer, beat the sugars with the butter until smooth and combined, on high for about five minutes. Beat in the peanut butter until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Then alternatively add and beat in the dry ingredients and the milk. Scoop batter into lined silicon cupcake molds (about 3/4 to the top) and bake for about 25 minutes at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean when you test them.

For my frostings: The chocolate frosting: 1 stick butter, 2 cups confectioner's sugar, 1/3 cup Dutch process cocoa, 1/4 cup heavy cream

Buttercream frosting: 1 stick butter, 2 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar, 2 T heavy cream, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Sasha's Kitchen: Designer Handbag Cupcakes

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Butterfinger Cupcakes With Peanut Butter Frosting

My newest cupcake iteration combines my favorite candy bar, the Butterfinger, into a Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cupcake.  The chocolate cupcakes were perfect, though I will be the first to admit that the Chocolate Stout Cupcakes are still my favorite.  However, the synthesis of the chocolate Butterfinger cupcake with the perfect peanut butter frosting was the perfect combination.

I've actually only been making cupcakes regularly for about two years now.  In the beginning, I did not have an artisan mixer, so this presented all kinds of problems when I got to the stage of whipping up a good frosting.  In those days a used a hand mixer, which usually resulted in spraying bits of butter and powdered sugar all over the kitchen, including sticking to the wall.  This never pleased the person in charge of cleanup duties  (my loving husband).

A second problem was that I did not have a good cupcake book - the book I started with (which shall remain nameless) was terrible and every cupcake recipe I tried never was worth repeating.  Then, I tried Julie Hassan's book, 125 Best Cupcake Recipes, and immediately every cupcake I made was a huge success.  After a few months of making Julie's amazing cupcakes (with some recipes I will eventually share here), I have started writing my own recipes and coming up with creative and fun ways to decorate the cupcakes.

In her book, Julie has a recipe for candy bar cupcakes using Three Musketeers and Snickers bars.  I don't care for those candy bars, but I wanted to use candy bars to create a chocolate peanut butter classic.  So from there, I went on to devise my own recipe for a candy bar cupcake.

 Chocolate Butterfinger Cupcake With Peanut Butter Frosting

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 cups cocoa

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cups milk

2 Butterfinger candy bars, crushed into small pieces with a nut chopper

Peanut Butter Frosting

2 cups confectioners sugar

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

pinch salt

2 T milk

If you want a crunch peanut butter frosting, you can mix another Butterfinger bar into the frosting

To make the cupcakes, mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.  Add the oil and sugar to the mixer and combine on medium speed.  Then add the vanilla and eggs.  Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the mix, until fully combined.  Put in silicon cups with cupcake liners and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes until done (check with a toothpick).

To make the frosting, beat the butter until soft.  Then combine with the other ingredients and beat at a high speed in your stand mixer until you have a light and fluffy peanut butter frosting.  This stuff tastes amazing, that you almost forget that it's so fattening!

More chocolate cupcakes?  Check out my Red Velvet Cupcakes and my Chocolate Stout Cupcakes.

Cupcake

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Butterfinger Cupcakes With Peanut Butter Frosting