Photo Credit: Pippa Biddle
Last week I was craving cupcakes. Since I cook for myself and don’t use the campus dining halls at all I rarely have sweets around. If I buy them I know I will eat them all in one go. If I make them I will do the exact same thing but also lick the bowl. The supermarket next to my building sells cupcakes but they are huge and intimidating. All that I wanted was a bite-sized blast of chocolate and peanut butter in cupcake form! Is that too much to ask? Well, finally a good excuse came around as a friend was hosting at valentine’s day party for her volleyball team Saturday night. I wasn’t going to be able to go but I saw my opportunity for excess baked goods consumption. I whipped up these little buggers in about an hour and a half, left three on my desk, and delivered the rest to the party. I impressed myself with my restraint – it took a whole five minutes for me to devour the three that were supposed to last me at least 24 hours.
Photo Credit: Pippa Biddle
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes (makes 36 mini cupcakes)
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1tsp baking soda
- 1 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
- 1 egg
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 6 oz dark semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Preheat over to 375F and line cupcake tin with liners
- Combine flour, granulated sugar, baking soda, 1tsp salt, and cocoa powder in a large bowl. Mix until combined by hand or with electric mixer.
- Mix in egg, milk and veggie oil until combined and there are no lumps.
- Pour batter into cupcake tins. Each tin should be about 1/3 of the way full.
- Bake mini-cupcakes for 5-7 minutes and full-sized cupcakes for 10-12 minutes
- While cupcakes are baking heat 1/2 cup heavy cream in microwave or in saucepan. Add peanut butter and stir until combined. Pour mixture into medium mixing bowl and place in freezer for 5 minutes or until chilled.
- Once chilled add vanilla and a 1/4 tsp salt. Beat on high with electric mixer until mixture starts to thicken. Gradually add powdered sugar until the mixture has reached a soft peak stage – this may not require the full cup.
- Heat remaining 1/2 cup of cream in the microwave or a saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips until it has reached a smooth consistency.
- Once cupcakes have cooled spoon peanut butter mixture into a piping bag with a 2-3 mm round tip for mini-cupcakes or larger round tip for full-sized cupcakes. press the tip of the piping bag into the center of the cupcake and squeeze firmly while pulling the bag out. The cupcake should inflate a little and some filling will ooze out of the top – this is ok.
- Chill filled cupcakes in the freeze for 3-5 minutes. Remove from freezer 5 at a time and dip tops into the chocolate ganache topping. If the ganache has become too hard to dip warm it carefully over the stove or in the microwave at 5 second increments.
- Place dipped cupcakes to the side and allow to set. This may take up to 2 hours depending on the room temperature.
