Chocolate Cupcakes With Peanut Butter Frosting!

One of my girls at work recently left, and I wanted to go all out for her 'goodbye cupcakes'. I bought some new frosting tips and finally, finally made a rose design with frosting! I was so happy and it was ridiculously easy - I just never had the right tip! (It's Wilton 1M by the way). The recipe for the cupcake and frosting are both courtesy of Barefoot Contessa over at Food Network.

I was very interested in making a peanut butter frosting after one of my girlfriends mentioned it to me in passing, and I was so pleased with the result. This is definitely in my top 3 of frostings! The peanut butter whips up beautifully with butter, powdered sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla. It pipes wonderfully, and together with the moist chocolate cake - delicious! I garnished the cupcakes with some cute little pink heart picks (thanks Michael's post-Valentine's Day sale) and drizzled melted dark chocolate on a few.

Holiday love!

Wow I can't believe I haven't posted in about a month! November has been crazy what with my birthday, Turkey Day, the semester wrapping up, work being insanely busy, and life in general being busy and lovely. I did manage to bake something today which was nothing short of miraculous as I have been eating out and getting takeout often these past few weeks! I definitely had to reacquaint myself with the kitchen this morning!

Banana Walnut Chocolate Chip Muffins with Maple Almond Butter Glaze and Cinnamon Sugar on top! The almond butter and cinnamon-sugar grinder were two lovely gifts I received in the fall as part of the fabulous Foodie Penpals program, thanks again girls!

Baby Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownie Cupcakes!

Awhile back, when I first discovered lovely Joy the Baker, I bookmarked a brownie recipe of hers - these heavenly-looking Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies. The combination of sweet n' salty, always a winner in my book, grabbed my attention right away. I'm not a big brownie maker so I decided to convert this recipe to mini cupcakes. I also didn't feel the need to make the peanut butter into a sauce by adding sugar and vanilla extract, so I simply swirled creamy peanut butter onto the brownie cupcakes once cooled, and topped with a pretzel. I had to spray the mini cupcake liners to death with Pam, or else the brownie batter would've stuck like glue (and it still did, a teeny bit). The end effect is lovely, perfectly sized chocolatey, peanuty, pretzely (yes, these are all words) bites!

Note the adorable mini cupcake spatula, courtesy of Crate & Barrel!

My dinner consisted of an alarming amount of the above brownie cupcake minis, half a bottle of Merlot, and a plate of raspberries, cheese rounds, and olive crackers! :)

Brownie Peanut Butter Cups!

Peanut Butter Brownie Cups!

Made on 01/21/12

Thanks to Bake or Break! :)

What I have made thus far .... Bakerella Edition!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies!
Made on 12/15/11.

Baby Cherry Cheesecakes!
Made on 12/17/11.

Oreo Cupcakes!
Made on 10/13/11.

Thanks to Bakerella! :)