Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Icing

Yesterday my little aspiring chefs (my daughters and my niece) and I went to Chef Central in Paramus to watch a cooking competition and to spend some Christmas money on kitchen stuff.  Among many other items, we bought a heart-shaped cupcake tray so today, of course, we had to make cupcakes.

My favorite cupcakes are from my own recipe for chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing.  I have said this before and I will say it again - I only make stuff like this once in a while, I know it has a lot of sugar and butter in it and it is for special occasions not for every day.  On the other hand - when you make stuff like this from scratch it is less unhealthy than if you buy it in a store because you can cut out pesticides, chemicals and preservatives :)

I use all organic ingredients when making these little pieces of heaven...

INGREDIENTS

Cupcakes:

12 tablespoons of unsalted butter ( I KNOW but I swear I only make these once or twice a year!)

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 cup plus 1/3 cup whole milk

1 egg at room temp

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1 cup chocolate chips

Frosting:

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup powdered sugar

8 oz. heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour your cupcake pan if you are not using any liners - REALLY grease it - these suckers like to stick.

Take butter, cocoa powder and 1/4 cup milk and melt together in a saucepan. Stir in the sugars until everything is combined and then set aside to cool a little.

In a large bowl combine flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Add in cooled cocoa mixture and stir together.  Then add in 1/3 cup milk, egg and vanilla.  Stir until combined and fold in chocolate chips.

Fill cupcake tins 3/4 of the way and bake for 20-25 minutes (maybe more, my oven is severely off)  Use the toothpick test to make sure they are done.

Let them cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

In the meantime.....

Combine all frosting ingredients in a bowl and beat on high for approximately 4 minutes until light and fluffy.  Then refrigerate for about an hour so the icing firms up. 

After the icing has been chilled, frost the cupcakes and serve immediately.

Yuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmm :)

Next time I will throw up a low-cal veggie meal to make up for this - I know I will only be eating carrots and celery for the next two days after this calorie fest :)