Peanut Butter Cupcakes w/ Peanut Butter Frosting

Oh man...if you love peanut butter, you have to try these (I think my only complaint is that they're a little too sweet, but I think most people would be fine with this level of sweetness). Julie and Jenny came over because the three of us LOVE peanut butter. We didn't use Reese's Pieces because I was dumb and forgot, but I wouldn't have eaten them anyway (bleh!)...so sorry Julie & Jenny! :(

Baked on 7/31/09


Peanut butter-y frosting:


Peanut Butter Cupcakes w/ Peanut Butter Frosting recipe (original HERE):

Peanut butter cupcakes:

2/3 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp baking powder
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1) Cream together shortening and sugar
2) Add eggs & beat well
3) Add peanut butter & beat well
4) Add milk and vanilla extract alternately with the baking powder and flour (this part was funny...we weren't even sure if we were doing it correctly because it took awhile and seemed weird, although we DID understand why we had to alternate the ingredients like that)
5) Fill the muffin liners ~3/4 full with batter
6) Bake for 20-25 min or until golden brown & a toothpick comes out clean
7) Cool cupcakes completely on a wire rack & frost with peanut butter frosting

Peanut Butter Frosting

1 - 16oz box (1lb) powdered sugar
1 - stick margarine, softened (1/2 cup) ** I used butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 - tsp vanilla extract
Milk (~3 - 4 tablespoons)

1) Cream powdered sugar and margarine together
2) Add peanut butter & mix well
3) Add vanilla extract & enough milk to make it easy enough to spread
4) Beat mixture together until you have the desired consistency
5) Frost cupcakes when completely cooled

Cupcakes For Steve's 21st

Monday, 9.1.08
Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla and chocolate frosting (my first cupcakes from scratch!). Recipes for both cupcakes and frosting below. I'd make these again. Pretty easy. The frosting was really sweet, but I guess frosting is pretty much just sugar (and butter). The chocolate one tasted better to me. The cake wasn't really moist, but it wasn't too dry either, and it wasn't too sweet.

The cakes:



The frosting:
After adding about 2 tablespoons of unsweetened chocolate powder to the rest (I added choc powder after icing three of the cupcakes with the plain vanilla frosting):

These are just some of them:


RECIPE

White cake (original recipe here):

* 1 cup white sugar
* 1/2 cup butter
* 2 eggs
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Spoon batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

Frosting (original recipe here). Only problem was that this recipe made too much for the 12 cupcakes I made.

* 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (I didn’t sift it)
* 1/2 cup butter
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 tablespoons milk (I used non-fat)
* 2 (or 3) tablespoons cocoa powder (optional)

1. Cream sugar, butter and vanilla. Add a small amount of milk (1 to 2 tablespoons). Add cocoa if desired and beat until fluffy. If frosting is too sweet add a little more milk.

Surprisingly Good Carrot Cake Cupcakes

I made these for my auntie yesterday because she chopped off my hair yesterday. I say these were "surprisingly" good because I normally hate carrot cake, although maybe my tastes have changed. Got this recipe here (see my version below). It required a lot of time and effort, but I'd still consider it easy. Once you prep everything (shred the carrots, soak the raisins, drain the pineapple and carrots, chop the walnuts, etc.), it's pretty simple.

Dang stupid shadow. Need to work on my lack of photography skills. Here's what 3 cups of grated carrots looks like (wayy good arm workout!). For some reason I kept thinking about how much carrot this recipe requires, and then I remembered I was making carrot cake. Smart.

I forgot to add in the raisins so I added those last (I don't think that matters).

Raw:

Baked:


One of the best things about these is that they have great texture with their pineapple, raisins, and walnuts. Oh! And tons of carrots, of course, although you can't really feel the carrots.

I opened that one on purpose to get a picture of the inside.

So moist and tasty. I'd lower the sugar even more next time though.

HERE is the original recipe. I fixed it so that I could make 16 cupcakes instead of full cakes (cut everything in half, prepped the night before, and excluded the cream cheese frosting). Here's what I did:

• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
  
• 1/2 cup raisins (soaked in water overnight)
  
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cups white sugar *actually, a little less
  
• 1/2 cup canola oil (because I didn't have vegetable oil)
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained (I measured & drained this the night before and then drained it again the day of)
  
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. In a medium bowl, combine grated carrots & brown sugar. Set aside for 60 minutes and then stir in raisins.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Grease and flour muffin/cupcake tins (I used one 12-cup tin and a 6-cup tin).
4. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light.
   
5. Gradually beat in the white sugar, oil and vanilla.
   
6. Stir in the pineapple.
   
7. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, stir into the wet mixture until absorbed.
8. Stir in the carrot mixture and the walnuts. Pour evenly into pans.
9. Bake for 30-ish minutes in the preheated oven until toothpick comes out clean.
   
10. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan.