{recipe} peanut butter cupcakes.

can you believe that summer is almost over? the past two days it has really started to feel like fall in in northern virginia. don't get me wrong, i love summer, being the sun baby i am but i am so looking forward to fall trench coats, sweaters, jeans and leather boots. i am excited to start backing with nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and all those other amazing spices that remind me of thanksgiving. ok i am getting ahead of myself, it is still august.

back to peanut butter, a coworker was raving about peanut butter cupcakes a few weeks back and it got me thinking, i want peanut butter cupcakes! so last week i set out to find the perfect peanut butter cupcake recipe and came across this gem. these babies were given rave reviews over the weekend, by a few of my favorite taste testers, including buckley who opted for his without chocolate frosting. i hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp.salt

6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup chunky or smooth peanut butter (I used chunky since that is Matt's favorite)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup milk (I used fat-free)

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin tin cups with paper cupcake liners. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

 

2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium, beat the butter, peanut butter and brown sugar until smoothly blended and lightened in color, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. 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.

3. Fill each paper liner with a generous 1/4 cup of batter, to 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.

Creamy Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups powdered sugar

6 tbsp. cocoa powder

6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

5 tbsp.evaporated milk

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, sift together the powdered sugar and cocoa, and set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth, then gradually beat in sugar mixture alternately with evaporated milk. Blend in vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. If necessary, adjust consistency with more milk or sugar.

 

Yields: 16 cupcakes!

*Recipe adapted from Sweet and Savory Tooth images captured by caitlin.marie