Pin a Day: Reese's Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Each year I ask Mike what birthday treat he might like, and I always get one of two answers. He either doesn't care or he wants something that may be a little bit more difficult than what I normally do. This year was no different and he gave me no guidance. We ended up getting quite full at dinner, so not having a birthday treat was ok. I still felt like he needed a treat, so I headed to my Pinterest boards and searched for something that might be similar to a favorite recipe that I misplaced. These Reese's Peanut Butter Cupcakes sounded perfect. After starting the process, I was also glad I hadn't cleaned my kitchen because I created quite a mess with cocoa powder. I started by mixing the dry ingredients in a bowl, which I set aside. In my stand mixer, I combined the butter and sugar until it was nice and fluffy. Next, I added in the eggs one at a time and the vanilla. Next, I rotated adding the dry mix and sour cream, mixing and scraping the bowl between each addition. Next, I added in some mini Reese's peanut butter cups into the batter. I divided the batter amongst baking cups and baked them for about 17 minutes. I did 1 and 1/2 batches, which made just over 2 dozen cupcakes. I was glad to have extras to share with Mike's friend from work and a few for our favorite beer tender. While the cupcakes were cooling, I got to work on the frosting. I mixed together peanut butter and butter. Then, I added in powdered sugar and milk until I reached the ideal consistency. I only made a single batch of frosting because we don't like our cupcakes over frosted. Once the cupcakes were cooled, I frosted them and topped each with 1/2 of a small Reese's cup. The results were amazing. The cupcakes were rich and chocolatey. The are a bit dense, almost being more of a brownie cup consistency rather than a true cupcake. The frosting was sweet, but understated. Overall, I was very pleased and delighted that they paired nicely with milk, hot chocolate, and coffee. These were a great belated birthday treat for Mike and would be a hit with any chocolate/peanut butter lover.
