Peanut Butter and Garam Masala Cupcakes

I know, right??! It certainly wouldn't have occurred to me to combine a childhood dietary staple with a South Asian spice generally used in dishes whose names I can't pronounce...and everything occurs to me.

No matter; these things look delicious no matter how you say it:

Photo via The Lune Cafe

Garam Masala spiced Cupcakes topped with Peanut Butter buttercream, peanut brittle, and caramalized bananas.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

In my quest to deliver deliciousness via cupcakes to the masses, I imagine I'll experience a few pitfalls as well as a few successes along the way.

I'm not sure how I'd classify this cupcake:

By all accounts, this looks like a pretty tasty cupcake. And yes, it was a tasty cupcake. Unfortunately, it came out a bit more dense than I'd planned it to be. It was almost more of a brownie texture than a cakey texture. Delicious, yes, yes of course, but this isn't BrowniesOMG! okay?


The peanut butter cream cheese frosting was yummy, absolutely, but it was a bit salty. Some liked it, some (i.e., me) thought it could have been sweeter.

My main disappointment though was that when I pulled these suckers out of the oven, they went from this, domed and high and puffy with so much promise...


...to this...


...in mere seconds. They didn't all fall flat, but yeah, that's basically what happened. Was it the 8 eggs in the batter? Yeah, probably. Was it the three sticks of butter the recipe called for?



Oh, without a doubt.


But hey, at least they were edible. I'm farily certain my cupcake tasters enjoyed them.
In the event you feel inclined to subject your insulin and cholesteral levels to this treat, here's what you need:

Lotta butter, lotta eggs, lotta chocolate.
Start by chopping the chocolate:


Then melt the butter with the chocolate:
Then you do some more stuff, but I don't have any pictures of that part...


And about 25 minutes later, you take 'em out of the oven:

Heyyyy, allllllriiiiiiiiight!

Ah, crap. FML.


Okay, well, no one will notice once you cover them in peanut butter cream cheese frosting.

Chocolate Cupcakes (adapted from cupcakeblog.com)
24 regular cupcakes (I got 16 'cus I'm doing something wrong)
350 degree oven (I set mine at 400 degrees to pre-heat and turned it down to 350 once I popped them in the oven with the goal of getting that domed effect. I'm still workin' out the kinks.)

200 gram bar of Dark Chocolate
3 sticks butter
2-1/4 cups sugar
8 eggs (you read that right)
1-1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder, unsweetened
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt

1. chop chocolate and transfer into a bowl.
2. add butter to the chocolate and place the bowl over a pan of simmering water to create a double boiler. stir until chocolate melts and butter is combined.
3. remove from heat and stir in sugar. let mixture cool for 10 minutes.
4. beat in an electric mixer for 3 minutes.
5. add one egg at a time, mixing for 30 seconds between each
6. sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and a pinch of salt into the mixture and mix until blended.
7. scoop into cupcake cups and bake at 350 F for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Peanut Butter frosting (this didn't make quite enough for me, so you may want to up the proportions by half)

1 8-oz package of cream cheese
1 stick of butter
3/4 cups of creamy peanut butter
4 cups of powdered sugar

In a bowl, whip together the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add in powdered sugar about a cup at a time until light in color. Add peanut butter. Frost cooled cupcakes.

Hello Cupcake, the review

Last Friday, the plan was to go try something new. Something different. Something unexpected.

Alright, so maybe trying a new cupcake shop isn't that unexpected, but it was supposed to be new.

However--there's always a "however" isn't there?

However, by the time I got home from work, I really didn't have the motivation to do anything other than go to the new salon I was checking out for my color consultation and watch the next movie in my Netflix queue, Renee Zelwegger classic New in Town (which was really cute, btw).

So, I copped out and ended up going to Hello Cupcake, my ol' realiable neighborhood cupcakery.

Excuse, I'm just getting on to my soapbox real quick. Oh...okay. I'm ready.

Why is it that everyone goes to Georgetown Cupcake? Is it because they came along first? Or because they were on Martha Stewart? Is it because everyoneandtheirmotherespeciallyhipstersandwannabefoodies told you it was the best in DC??

Look, I'm not trying to say Georgetown Cupcake isn't good--great even--but what I am saying is that there are other places in DC that offer an equally good, if not better, product. What I'm trying to say is that Hello Cupcake is that place.

So I dragged my friened Katie to my favorite cupcakery in DC since she'd never tried it before. We got the peanut butter blossom cupcake (chocolate cupcake with a peanut butter buttercream):

So light, so fluffy.

Pardon the pictures, they're from my iPhone. Yeah, I have an iPhone. Jealous?? (don't be, AT&T service sucks!)

So much anticipation....

Yes, this is happening...

Alright, these pictures just don't do this treat justice! The chocolate is chocolatey, but not too rich, and you wouldn't want it to be. With the appropriate 1:2 ratio of icing to cupcake, the creamy peanut butter frosting satisfies your need for the coma-inducing flavor combination. The cake is tender and moist, but not crumbly. The frosting...oh, the frosting. Light, sweet, creamy, perfection.

Katie only took a bite of hers, but as clearly documented in the pictures, I inhaled mine. Nevertheless, she noted the mild chocolate flavor with the thick frosting being the perfect pair. Oh, and did I mention they top it off with a Hershey kiss? Well, they top it off with a Hershey kiss!

If you take nothing else from today's review, just remember that there are other cupcakeries in DC...other WONDERFUL cupcakeries with OTHER flavors and MORE seating than, well, some other cupcakeries.

Will I go back? Oh yeah. I'd move in if I could, but apparently that poses some kind of health and safety concern.

Peanut Butter Cup-cake

So, some genius on flickr called brown sugar baking got the sick, twisted, waistline-ruining idea to make THIS:

Oh, and if THAT weren't bad enough, look what else she did:

O.

M.

G.

Are you kidding me right now?? I die:

This chocolate cupcake, with a Reese’s cup baked inside, topped with chocolate ganache frosting and yet another Reese’s cup can make you gain weight just by looking at!! LOOK AWAY!!!