Fun Food Friday- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Just had to entice you right away :)

Last month I had the privilege of helping put on a bridal shower for my cousin.  It was a pretty large shower and had both male and females in attendance.  I wanted to do a bride's cupcake and a groom's cupcake.  I came up with the bride's cupcake pretty quickly (a strawberry yogurt cupcake filled with strawberries and topped with vanilla buttercream- recipe coming soon) but couldn't decide on a groom's cupcake.  Then Steve and I went to Detroit for a Tiger's game and whenever we go to Detroit we make sure to go to Taste Love Cupcakes, a Cupcake Bakery near Detroit that has won on Cupcake Wars.  They have the most amazing cupcakes!  Well this year we had a chocolate peanut butter cupcake that did not disappoint.  So that got me thinking that it would make a great groom's cupcake because you could put a mini Reese's on top to look like a top hat :).  So I set out to find a great Peanut Butter frosting recipe.  I knew I wanted to use my Buttermilk Brownie recipe for the cupcakes (I discovered while making The Pioneer Woman's Best Ever Chocolate Cake that it was the exact same recipe as my Buttermilk Brownies and does make the best cake).  Then I found a website called Javacupcakes.com that had a yummy looking recipe for Peanut Butter Frosting and oh my goodness was it ever amazing.  So you put the 2 together and...Voilà, one delicious cupcake!  And seriously, not very hard to make. So if you want to wow people with some cupcakes try these ones, I promise, you will not be disappointed.  The ones I made for this blog were for cookie time after church so I made mini-cupcakes for them.  I also made a batch of gluten free cupcakes because this frosting is gluten free, so I brought a box of them for my friend at church who can't have gluten.  And what you really want to do is make extra frosting because next week I'll show you what to do with that extra peanut butter frosting :)

Ingredients: Butter, Peanut Butter, Powdered Sugar, Whipping Cream

And then of course you will also want some cupcakes to frost :), you can see about that recipe here

In a mixer bowl cream together butter and peanut butter...

Until it is smooth and lighter

With the mixer on low add powdered sugar...

until it looks like this

Then add whipping cream

Scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure all the sugar got incorporated

Then turn the mixer on high and beat for 3-4 minutes...

Or until the buttercream is light and fluffy

 

I frost mine with a Wilton 1A tip (this one) and this is how I do it

And then I like to put the mini-Reese's on top 

I put 4 gluten free cupcakes in a box for my friend who has Celiac

(I didn't put the Reese's on top of these because I didn't know if they were gluten free, plus I'm not sure they would fit since I put the frosting so high :))

Then for everyone else I made mini-cupcakes.  I frosted them the same way as the regular cupcake, just with a smaller tip

They turned out so cute!  Plus, you feel like you can eat about 3 since they're small :)

These 2 were definitely fans of them

 

This is how I displayed them at my cousin's shower.  The Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake was the Groom cupcake :).  The Bride's Cupcake was a Strawberry filled yogurt cupcake (recipe coming soon).

 

My mom just covered wine classes with tissue paper and tied a ribbon for the display.  Turned out so cute! (Sorry for the quality of the picture, I forgot to take a picture with my camera so I zoomed in on someone else's picture to get you a close up :))

 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Cupcakes
2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1 cup boiling water

1/4 cup cocoa

1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk + 1/2 TBS lemon juice)

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

 

Sift together flour and sugar into a mixer bowl.  In a saucepan melt butter.  Add water and cocoa and bring to a boil for 30 seconds, stirring constantly.  Pour into bowl with flour/sugar mixture.  Beat on medium/high for 2 minutes.  Add buttermilk, eggs, baking soda and vanilla.  Beat 2 more minutes.  Pour into muffin tins with cupcake liners.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of a cupcake.  Cool.

 

Peanut Butter Frosting (Enough to frost 18 cupcakes)

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup creamy peanut butter

3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

 

In a mixer bowl cream together the butter and peanut butter for 2-3 minutes.  The color will lighten a few shades.  With the mixer on low slowly add the powdered sugar.  Scrape down the bowl to make sure all the sugar got mixed in.  Pour in the heavy cream and beat on high for 3-4 minutes until it is light and fluffy.

 

Frost the cooled cupcakes

Life with the Bussis'- 9.24.14

Looking back at the pictures from this past week I realize that we had a really fun week!  The weather has warmed up and been beautiful so we have taken advantage and spent a lot of time outdoors.

Last Wednesday night we had the kickoff for GEMS at our house (hot dog roast at the parsonage, always a fun thing :)).  The boys were pretty excited to get to cook their dinner over the fire (well, Micah was at least).  They were playing beforehand and I looked out the window and Micah and David were just sitting by each other on the grass.  Actually, I think originally Jonathan was sitting there too which made it super cute, but of course by the time I grabbed my camera he was off doing something else.

David, much to his mother's dismay, loves climbing on the wall

Jonathan just loves moving :)

They were all sitting there cute by the fire but of course when I try to take a picture someone doesn't cooperate

Just can't stay in one place very long

Eating some grub

Micah amazingly roasted his own hot dog and marshmallow.  We thought for sure he would either burn the marshmallow or be there for an hour roasting it because he put it so far away from the fire so not to burn it, but he did a great job!

 

The boys were playing outside one morning and I was sitting on the driveway doing some work and David went and got his chair and plopped right down next to me.  Made me smile that he wanted to sit by Mommy.  He really is a sweetheart (well, they all really are :)).  Just a little while ago I was practicing the piano and he climbed on the piano bench next to me, said "Hi Mommy!" and kissed my arm. So sweet!  I just love my boys!!!

Jonathan preferred to just drive around in his car.

We got the twins their birthday present a little early.  Micah got this train set as his prize for no longer wearing diapers (yes, we resorted to bribery :)) and they all love playing with it.  We had it on a rectangle table we have, but they had to stand on chairs then to play with it and the twins kept falling off the chairs :), so we decided to get the Melissa & Doug activity table for them and it's been great!

Thursday night Steve had a Classis meeting so the boys and I met up with Steve's mom and the mall (my father-in-law also had to go to the meeting as an elder, so it worked great).  Now that the weather turned colder I noticed that Micah's jeans were a little short :), so we needed to get him some new jeans and decided to make a fun night out of it.  After playing on the playground a while we headed to the food court for dinner.

And after dinner they talked Grandma into giving them quarters so they could ride the fun rides :)

After the mall we headed over to Costco to get a few things and have some ice cream!

Jonathan decided ice cream tastes better when you eat it while walking around :)

 

Friday night we decided to attempt to take the boys back to Olive Garden (last time I took them there was with my Mom in May and they were not very well behaved little boys that time :)).  But we had a coupon for free kids meals for every adult meal purchased and a gift card, so we thought, why not. 

 

They were sooooo good!  That couple in the background even told Steve as we were leaving how very impressed they were with how well behaved our boys were.  That made this mamma proud. :)  I feel like we have come a long way since May :).  They really are much better at getting along and listening.  It's a lot of hard work, but moments like these make you realize it's worth it :)

 

I don't think too many kids would go for their broccoli before their pizza, but the twins LOVE broccoli and always eat it first :)

 

See, broccoli almost gone, pizza not touched

 

 

Saturday we went to Post Family Farm, which Micah calls the Pumpkin Farm (because you get to pick a pumpkin).  Here Micah is feeding the goats

Jonathan tried one time, and then freaked out :).  Of course he didn't grasp the concept of hold your hand out with the food in your palm and they'll lick it off your hand.  No, he held it in between his fingers, and the goat still got it, and he wasn't a fan :)

Cousin Bentley figured it out

Riding the barrel train

 

Micah (who always complains about the sun in his eyes)

Bentley

Jonathan

And then there's David.  Oh David :), my silly boy

I think they could have ridden this all day and be fine with it

Going down the big barrel slide.

David loved this slide.  When the other boys moved on to something else, he just kept going on it

 

On the wagon to go to the pumpkin patch

David

 

Jonathan was terrified of the wagon and held on tight to Grandma

He did eventually relax some and I think on the way back maybe even enjoyed it

Even Baby Morgan got to join in on the fun

 

Some day I think these two will hate these pictures of them holding hands :) but for now we think they're adorable

Pumpkins make great seats

Notice no Jonathan, he was also terrified of the pumpkin patch :)

 

Looking for the perfect pumpkin

"Mom, I want the big one"- yeah right :)

Trying to get a picture of all 4 boys, this was the best I got :)

My little guys with their pumpkins they got to take home

All the boys with their pumpkins

On the way back

Micah was helping Grandma get Bentley to smile

 

Making sure no one takes his pumpkin :)

 

Another attempt to get a cute picture of all 4 boys.  Maybe should have tried right when we got there as apposed to at the end when they were hungry and tired :) 

Back home, Jonathan loves wearing Steve's hats and he prefers the backward look

This little guys (David) is seriously a camel!  He just drinks and drinks and drinks!

"Cheese"

He then suggested to me that I take his picture in the shade :).  Such a smart guy

 

The boys "helping" me decide what we all should wear for our family pictures coming up.

After their helping didn't help, we decided to just go play outside.  David loves to ride the swing like this

 

But both he and Jonathan have also learned how to sit on the swing.

 

This was so sweet.  I had just given Jonathan a ride in the wagon and we got back and he wanted out and David wanted in.  So I put David in and Jonathan grabbed the handle and started giving David a ride.  He pulled him all the way around church!  What a brother! 

 

Micah loves riding his bike

Jonathan loves "riding" this bike (he scoots around on his tip-toes)

And David prefers his "truck"

  

One video to leave you with.  So my boys are OBSESSED with Sheriff Callie, a show on Disney Junior.  The twins call it the "Yee-Haw" show.  Anyways, on one of the episodes Toby, who is a cactus, sings this song "I love, love, love, love milkshakes."  And as he sings the word "milkshake" he shakes his bottom.  So Micah loves to eat milkshakes, but in order to get mommy to make one for him, she makes him sing the milkshake song because it is just too cute to see him shake his bottom :).  So I thought I'd share it with you :)