Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream

Pin It Now! Recently our good friends A & T invited us over for Fight Night.  I won't pretend to know the first thing about boxing or ultimate fighting or whatever it was, but getting together with friends is always great.  It's also a good excuse to get in the kitchen and make something yummy to share.

I decided to make chocolate cupcakes with a creamy peanut butter frosting.  I can't remember what chocolate cake recipe I used for this particular occasion, but there are lots of good ones out there.  Yummy Mummy features the famous Magnolia Bakery chocolate cupcake recipe here.

When it comes to making frosting, I admit to completely winging it.  Here's the gist of it:

Peanut Butter Buttercream

2 sticks of unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup of creamy peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
Powdered sugar

Cream the butter on medium speed until light and fluffy.   Add the vanilla and 1 cup of peanut butter and cream until well mixed.  Sift in powdered sugar (I usually go 1/2 cup at a time) until it reaches the desired consistency.  Finishing ideas: mini chocolate chips, mini peanut butter cups (Trader Joe's makes the perfect tiny peanut butter cup), drizzled ganache... Hungry yet??