i had a little potluck dinner party to attend saturday night and i volunteered to bring cupcakes. we were all getting together because my friend robyn was coming to town from seattle for the weekend. robyn loves the odd couple cupcake from sugar mama's so i was going to try to recreate it for her. once i realized i didn't really have the time or energy to make the salted caramel icing i decided to do a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting. initially i was going to make the cupcakes from scratch but then i realized i didn't even have time for that so i had to use a cake mix. i used a betty crocker super moist devil's food mix and it turned out pretty delicious. the peanut butter frosting recipe goes as follows:
1 cup reese's creamy peanut butter (any creamy peanut butter will do but it's definitely worth it to spring for a more expensive brand. the peanut butter is the foundation to the flavor of this cupcake so you don't want a cheapy store brand that has an inferior flavor)
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
mix butter and peanut butter in a large mixing bowl with a handmixer. add in sugar 1 cup at a time, adding the milk in 1 tablespoon at a time as well. add vanilla last and mix until fluffy.
i used a wilton 22 icing tip to frost the cupcakes and then finished them off with some of the new mini reese's. they looked and tasted beautiful!
after i ate one i decided that using a cake mix was probably the best idea because the cake is so secondary to this particular cupcake. it would have almost been a waste of time to make a cake from scratch when really all people were going to notice would be the frosting. they were a huge hit at the party and i actually managed to bring home a few leftovers. i'll definitely be making these again.
