Gratuitous Peanut Butter

Peanut Butter: An American delicacy and a personal obsession. These are peanut butter cupcakes with a thin coat of peanut butter, peanut butter frosting, and crunchy, salty honey-roasted peanuts on top. Of course, just the cupcakes and frosting are delightful in their own right without going to the extra trouble.

If you love peanut butter, this is the cupcake for you.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes
yield: 24 cupcakes

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup natural peanut butter (personally, I used Jif natural creamy)
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
3 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

extra peanut butter (optional)
honey-roasted nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 if using dark pans like mine). Line two muffin tins with 24 cupcake liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and peanut butter, adding sugar and continuing to cream until light and fluffy (about 3-5 minutes on medium speed). Add in the eggs, one at a time, mixing to combine. Add in the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.

Divide batter among cupcake tin, using scant 1/4 cup of batter per cupcake. Bake in preheated oven for 15 - 18 minutes (18-20 if using dark pans) until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs attached. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove and cool completely. If you're feeling frisky, smear the top of each cupcake with a dab of peanut butter.

Peanut Butter Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup natural peanut butter
3/4 tsp salt
4 - 5 cups powdered sugar
4 - 6 tbsp cream

Cream the butter, peanut butter, and salt until homogenous and lightened in color and texture (about 3 minutes on medium-high speed). Add in 3 tbsp of the cream and mix. Next, add 3 cups of the confectioner's sugar. The mixture, at this stage, should be stiff for frosting. Add the remaining cream alternately with the remaining sugar until desired sweetness/consistency has been reached*. Pipe onto cupcakes and top with lightly chopped honey-roasted peanuts.

*Personally, I like a lighter, less sweet frosting, so I tend to use 6 tbsp of cream and 4 - 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar in the end.

Raspberry Chocolate Cake

This was inspired by this Raspberry Chocolate Cake over at Ambrosia Baking. However, I really do like my chocolate cake and frosting recipe, so I thought I would adapt them and add a delicious raspberry filling.

Raspberry filling

1 cup raspberry jam (about an entire small jar)
1 cup fresh raspberries
lemon or lime juice

This filling is a total cheat.

Mix the jam and fresh raspberries together with a fork. Add a squeeze of lemon or lime juice and stir. Taste and check for consistency. Cover and chill. This can be made two days in advance.*

Chocolate Cake

1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk, shaken**
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla

1 cup coffee, fresh and hot

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 if using dark pans). Butter two 9-inch cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper, and butter the parchment and sides of the pan, sprinkling with cocoa powder or flour to ensure easy removal.

Sift together dry ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, oil, egg, and vanilla, whisking to combine. With the mixer running on low speed, gradually pour in the wet ingredients into the dry goods. Scrape down the bowl. With the mixer continuing on low speed, pour in the hot coffee. Scrape and mix until combined and homogenous (the batter will be a bit thin).

Divide between the prepared pans and bake in the preheated oven for 27-32 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 30 minutes and then turn out to cool completely.

Chocolate Frosting

6 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, melted and slightly cooled

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup cocoa
2 - 2 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

Cream the butter until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes on medium high speed. Mix in the vanilla until incorporated.

With the mixer running on low, slowly pour in the melted chocolate. Once incorporated, add the cocoa and half of the confectioner's sugar. Cream until smooth, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Add in the remaining confectioner's sugar based on your personal taste. Frost cake.

Assembly

Cut cake layers in half with a serrated knife. Place one layer on a cake board that is on a cake turner. Spread about 1/2 of the raspberry filling over the layer. Top with the second layer and spread about 1/2 cup frosting over. Top with another layer, spreading with the raspberry filling. At this point, I cover the cake and chill briefly.

Frost cake with remaining frosting. I whipped some cream and used some remaining raspberries, inspired by the Ambrosia Baking decoration.

*If you're concerned the filling is too thin, remove about half a cup and place into a microwave-safe bowl. Whisk in about 1 tbsp of sugar and 1 tbsp cornstarch. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, and microwave again until the mixture is bubbly and noticeably thicker. This will ensure the cornstarch activates. Once thickened, whisk into the rest of the filling. Cover and chill to completely set.

**I have this fondness for dry buttermilk powder. In place of the buttermilk, I mix in 4 tbsp of the dry buttermilk powder into the dry ingredients. For the liquid, you can use just about anything, but for this cake, I actually prefer 1 cup coffee, room temperature. The extra cup really provides a bold coffee flavor.

Beer Cupcakes

When I came across this recipe over at The Seaside Baker, I knew I had to try them! I have made beer cookies before, cooking down the beer to a rich, flavorful syrup. However, I had never considered using beer in cupcakes. These were delightful, and I will definitely be making them again!

Beer Cupcakes
yield: about 20 cupcakes

1 cup butter, melted
1 1/3 cups sugar

2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1 cup craft beer, I used Tap Room Number 21's Amber Ale

3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 (or 325 if using dark pans) and line two cupcake tins with 20 liners. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until a homogenous, wet, sandy mixture forms, about 2-3 minutes on medium speed. Add the eggs, beating to combine, followed by the vanilla. With the mixer running on low speed, add the beer and mix until homogenous (at this stage, the batter is quite thin).

With the mixer continuing on low speed, gradually add the flour mixture, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Avoid over-mixing. I found the batter thickened nicely, even after I had stopped mixing. Divide the batter between the liners, filling each liner about 2/3 full. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 15-18 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting
yield: enough to frost about 20 cupcakes

3/4 cup butter, softened
8oz cream cheese, softened

3 1/2 - 4 cups confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp cream

Cream the butter and cream cheese until combined. Add in one cup of the powdered sugar and mix to combine. Add in the vanilla, followed by another cup of the powdered sugar. Alternate remaining powdered sugar and cream until the desired consistency and sweetness is reached (I prefer a less-sweet frosting, so I wound up using about 3 1/2 cups of the sugar). Beat on high for 3-5 minutes. THe frosting will be light, airy, and will pipe beautifully. Frost the cupcakes.

Garnishes

1 cup crushed pretzels
1/2 cup roasted, salted peanuts
melted chocolate

Top each cupcake with pretzels, peanuts, and melted chocolate as you see fit.

Oatmeal Cream Pies

As I am baking with a greater intent towards selling, I find myself attracted to niche sweets. Cupcakes, certainly, have their own little market in the world of baking. And with some recent attempts at making S'Mores (a post on those experiments is long over due), I've found a new interest in reinventing classic sweet treats.

That is what brought me to Oatmeal Cream Pies, that much-coveted treat most of us remember from lunchtime trades in the middle school cafeteria. Whoever wound up with the cloyingly sweet, cellophane-wrapped treat certainly won the trade off. But these Oatmeal Cream Pies are far better and surprisingly easy to make.

Oatmeal Cream Pies
yield: 24 cookies for 1 dozen sandwiches

1 1/4 cups bread flour
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

1 cup rolled oats

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment or silicone liners.

In a medium bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the brown sugar and butter together to make a wet, sandy mixture. Add in the egg and vanilla, creaming until smooth. Gradually add the dry ingredients and mix until combined. With a large spoon, stir in the oats.

Measure out the dough by tablespoonfuls to make about about 24 cookies. Place no more than 6 on a baking sheet to allow plenty of room to spread. Press the dough into a circle to encourage spreading. Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool briefly on the cookie sheet before transferring the parchment or silicone mat to a wire rack. Let the cookies cool completely before removing them from the parchment.

Fill with Marshmallow Buttercream Filling.

Marshmallow Buttercream Filling
yield: enough frosting for 1 dozen oatmeal cream pies

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
One 7oz jar of marshmallow cream

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla, creaming until smooth. Mix in the marshmallow cream until combined. Either dollop filling on cookies and spread with a knife or pipe the filling using a pastry bag.

Chocolate Cupcakes. Peanut Butter Frosting.

I haven't posted in a while because I've been working on my chocolate cupcake recipe (and also S'mores, but they deserve their own post or two...). I've never been completely happy with most chocolate cupcake recipes I find: most have a pleasing crumb but weak flavor or intense flavor but are way too fudge-like and dense for my taste. My fix to this is simple: cooking cocoa, butter, and a liquid together to fully activate the deep chocolate flavor in cocoa without making the cake texture overly dense.

Oh, and there's peanut butter frosting. What can beat that?

Chocolate Cupcakes
yield: 2 dozen cupcakes

1 cup coffee or beer (like Guinness)
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup cocoa powder

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3 tbsp powdered buttermilk, optional*
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

3 extra-large eggs
1 tsp vanilla

In a pan over medium heat, melt the butter with the beer or coffee. Once melted, add the cocoa and whisk to combine. Continue to heat just until it begins to break; this indicates that the cocoa has been heated sufficiently. Let cool before continuing. And don't worry, the mixture will come back together when mixed with eggs.

Meanwhile, line two cupcake tins with liners and preheat the oven to 350 degrees (325 if you have dark pans like me). Sift together dry ingredients in a large bowl, set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the eggs and vanilla together just to combine. Add the cocoa mixture, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Mix until homogeneous. It should only take a minute to come together. Add the dry ingredients gradually, mixing to combine. Again, this should only take a minute.

Divide among the cupcake liners and bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Frost with Peanut Butter Buttercream.

Peanut Butter Buttercream

3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups natural peanut butter
3/4 tsp salt
5 - 6 cups powdered sugar
 6 - 8 tbsp cream

Cream butter, peanut butter, and salt until lightened and homogenous (natural peanut butter may take a minute or two to mix with butter). Add in 3 cups of confectioner's sugar gradually. By the time you've finished, the frosting should be fairly stiff. Add in 4 - 6 tbsp of the cream to lighten it up again.

Add in another cup and a half of confectioner's sugar and taste the frosting. I usually never add more than 5  cups total because the peanut butter flavor comes through better in a slightly less-sweet frosting. Depending on how much more sugar you add in, you may need to add more cream to keep it spreadable. Pipe or frost onto your cupcakes and enjoy!

*Seriously, guys, find powdered buttermilk at your store. It keeps for a very long time in the refrigerator and makes baking on the fly easier because I either find myself with no buttermilk or bad buttermilk because the last time I used it was months ago for another recipe. You mix the powder into your dry goods and add a cup of water (or other liquid if you're adventurous) to your wet goods. Easy!

Cinnamon Browned Butter Cupcakes

...with Cookie Butter Buttercream and Apple Butter Buttercream frostings. I don't think these need much more introduction.

Cinnamon Browned Butter Cupcakes

1 cup butter, divided

2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup dark brown sugar

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla

1 cup buttermilk

Prep:
Before getting started, brown the butter and cool it. Place 1/2 cup of the butter in a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat. Stir the butter constantly to ensure even browning (a silicone spatula works wonders here). When the milk solids reach an even amber color, pour the browned butter into a bowl to cool completely. The total process typically takes me about 8 minutes. This can be made well in advance and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before continuing.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 if using dark pans) and line two cupcake tins with 24 liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Process:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and browned butter until smooth and creamy. Add the sugars and cream until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes on medium-high speed.

Add the eggs to the butter-sugar mixture, one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add in the vanilla and mix. The mixture may look curdled at this point; don't let that bother you.

Add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, until everything is incorporated. Scrape down the bowl of the mixer as needed.

Divide the batter between the cupcake liners and bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Because of the darkness of the batter, these don't appear to brown too much.

Cookie Butter Buttercream

1/3 cup cookie butter
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups confectioner's sugar
3-4 tbsp cream

Cream the butter and cookie butter until light and fluffy. Add in 1 cup of the confectioner's sugar. The mixture will be stiff. Add in 3 tbsp of the cream to lighten. Add in enough of the remaining confectioner's sugar to meet your sweetness/consistency desires. I wound up using about 1 3/4 cups in total.  Frost 12 of the cupcakes with this mixture. I then topped the cupcakes with a sprinkling of gold sanding sugar and cinnamon.

Apple Butter Buttercream

1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tbsp apple butter, plus extra for filling
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups confectioner's sugar

Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add in the apple butter and cinnamon. Mix to combine. Add in the confectioner's sugar gradually until desired consistency and sweetness are reached. Again, I used about 1 3/4 cups sugar, but I tend to like frosting less sweet than some. Frost a ring of frosting around the outside of the 12 remaining cupcakes. Fill the center with a dollop of apple butter.

I've noticed myself moving away from filling cupcakes. While not every cupcake needs to be filled, the apple butter adds excellent flavor and texture to the apple butter frosted cupcakes. But of course, it's completely optional.

Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Chocolate and salted caramel is no new combination. However, I feel like I am forever on a quest for the perfect chocolate cupcake.

A popular method of chocolate cupcake making is the "Hershey's" method that involves the use of only cocoa in the cake and the application of water or coffee to make a thin batter. The result is deep cocoa flavor and an overall light cupcake. However, this was not the type of cupcake I wanted to pair with salted caramel frosting.

This recipe produces a denser, fudgey cake. It is not quite "brownie-like" in it's texture, but it gets close. This is the sort of cake that requires a glass of milk along side it. If nothing else, the salted caramel sauce and the resulting frosting are perfect. Absolutely perfect.

Chocolate Cupcakes
yield: 24 cupcakes


1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled

4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (or 325 if using dark pans). Line 24 cupcake tins with paper liners.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes at medium speed. Add in the melted chocolate chips and cream until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, and vanilla. Add to the butter mixture and cream until homogenous.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients to the batter. The resulting batter will be quite thick, sticky, and gloppy. Divide the batter among the cupcake tins. Bake at 350 for 15 - 18 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.*

*I will likely revisit this recipe in the future. I think a little buttermilk, and maybe reducing the cocoa powder, could go a long way towards making the batter more manageable and the end result chocolatey without being overly dense.


Brown Butter Salted Caramel Sauce
yield: about a cup of caramel

2 tbsp of butter

1 cup of sugar
1/4 cup water

1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp sour cream
1/2 tsp finely ground sea salt

Begin by browning the butter in a saucepan. Set aside to cool. In the same pan (if you're bold and confident in your caramel-making abilities) place the sugar and water and bring to a boil, stirring only until the sugar dissolves. Swirl the pan intermittently to prevent scorching and encourage even browning. After about 6-7 minutes at a steady boil, the mixture should be golden. Continue to boil for another minute or two until the mixture is a deep amber. Deep amber is the goal regardless of how long it may take to get there.

Remove from heat. Add in the cream all at once. The mixture will spit and sputter; just whisk it until it calms down. Add in the sour cream, salt, and reserved brown butter. Whisk to combine. Cool the mixture before making the frosting. This can be done in the refrigerator, whisking regularly, in about an hour. Otherwise, make the caramel the night before and let it cool overnight.


Salted Caramel Frosting

1 cup butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup caramel sauce
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt

3 - 4 cups confectioner's sugar

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter until light and whipped. Add in the caramel, beating slowly at first until incorporated. Increase speed to whip the butter-caramel mixture until light. Add in the vanilla and salt with the first cup of confectioner's sugar. Beat slowly, then increase speed to whip the frosting. Add in two more cups of confectioner's sugar slowly at first, then whipping.

After you've added in 3 cups of the sugar, taste the frosting for sweetness. A buttery taste in a caramel frosting can be quite pleasant if you prefer a less-sweet frosting. Add in as much more sugar as necessary to meet your taste (I added in another 1/2 cup). Finish the frosting by scraping the bowl well and beating at medium speed for at least one minute to lighten and whip.

Frost cupcakes. Drizzle remaining 1/4 cup of caramel over the cupcakes. Sprinkle with sea salt. Enjoy!