Cupcakes!!!

I love baking cupcakes, and not the store bought icing and cake mix stuff. Lately I've been making everything from scratch. It's been fun expanding my horizons and baking skills. So for my husband's birthday, I made chocolate peanut butter cupcakes (or what I like to call Reese's cupcakes since I added Reese's cups and pieces to the recipe). I found the recipe randomly online and decided to give it a try. Well, they came out really good - not heavy. Since so many people raved about them, I decided to share them with the blogging world.

Ingredients for the cake:
1 2/3 cup flour
3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup of sour cream (this keeps them moist!)
2 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
8 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups of sugar
2 eggs
1 bag of miniature Reese's cups (optional)

Directions for cake:
Preheat over to 350. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Stir sour cream, milk, and vanilla in a measuring cup. Mix butter and sugar - beat on medium high. Then add eggs to butter mixture one by one. On low speed, add your dry and wet ingredients, alternating, and ending with the dry ingredients. Fill cupcake liners a little over 1/2 way. Bake for about 15 min. Check for doneness with toothpick - it should come out clean. Optional: After 10 min insert a miniature Reese's cup into each cupcake - the middle should be jelly-like. Finish baking for 5 min.



Ingredients for Icing:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
4 Tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter, creamy
3 1/2 cups confection sugar
1 cup of frozen whipped topping
Reese's Pieces (optional)

Directions for Icing:
Combine cream cheese, butter, peanut butter with mixer. Slowly mix in confectioners sugar beating until smooth. Mix in whipped topping. Optional: Mash up Reese's Pieces and fold into the icing.



I hope you enjoy them as much as my friends did!
-Miche