Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cupcakes

Today we are giving a HUGE (chocolatey) shout out to

Your Homebased Mom

I recently saw her blog post for Peanut Butter - Chocolate Twist Cupcakes and fell in love.

I knew I had to make them immediately.

Here is a photo of her perfect creation
(not to be confused with my attempt above)

Isn't her cupcake just beautiful?

Mine may not look perfect, but boy did they taste good!

Let's go through the steps of making these awesome treats.

First, go HERE to view the recipe, I will also paste it below.  Home Based Mom was kind enough to make a printable for her recipe, so be sure to go on over to her website to get that and give her some comment love.

1/2 C butter (room temperature)

3 eggs (room temperature)

2 1/2 C flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 C creamy peanut butter

1 C packed brown sugar

3/4 C granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 C milk

4 oz. milk chocolate, melted

1 recipe Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

1 recipe Chocolate Frosting

1.  Mix together flour, baking powder and salt in one bowl.  Set aside.

2.  Preheat oven to 375.  In a large bowl (or your favorite Kitchen Aid) beat butter for about 30 seconds and then add peanut butter and combine.

3. Add in brown sugar and white sugar, about a 1/4 cup at a time.  Beat at a medium speed until combined and mixed together (remember to scrape the sides along the way).

(Don't worry about the "interesting" texture here, keep on pressing forward!)

4. Add in eggs, beating well after each one.  Add vanilla.

5: Add in flour and milk alternating. Mix on low speed after each addition.

(Melt chocolate in microwave)

 6. Pour half of the batter in another bowl and add melted chocolate.

(note- my chocolate batter turned out a little thick, watch the ratio of chocolate to batter)

7.  Fill lined muffin cups half with peanut butter batter and half chocolate batter. Fill about 2/3 full. Use knife to swirl the batter in each cup.

(note - I chose not to swirl my batter but rather left them stacked)

8.  Bake for about 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Make sure to let the cupcakes cool entirely before frosting.

( I like the swirled / stacked look of the two flavors!)

9. While cupcakes are cooling, start mixing up your frosting.

Head on over to Your Homebased Mom for all her frosting tips!  Follow her recipes below, I've honestly never had yummier frosting - ever!

Peanut Butter Frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1/2 C creamy peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla
6 C powdered sugar.
2-4 tsp of milk until desired consistency
Beat cream cheese, peanut butter  and vanilla until light and fluffy.  Gradually add in powdered sugar.  Add milk, 1 tsp at a time until desired consistency.  Divide into two portions.  Set aside one for the Chocolate Frosting.
Chocolate Frosting:
1/2 of peanut butter frosting
1/2 C cocoa (or more to desired taste)
Beat until well combined.
Fill decorating bags with each frosting.  Put both bags into one large bag and add desired tip.  Pipe onto cupcakes.

See how mine turned out....

*Note:  The double piping technique worked for me on exactly three cupcakes before the icing exploded out of the bag.  Awesome right?

And, when I say explode, I mean EXPLODE!
All the frosting exited the bag! I had just enough left in the bags to make one circle of frosting, in one flavor, on top of each cupcake.

I decided to just ice the rest with the peanut butter chocolate frosting and they turned out fabulous!

So, what do you think?  Please leave me a comment below with your thoughts.

linking up here:  This Chick Cooks, Funky Junk Interiors, Serenity Now, Finding Fabulous, Whipper Berry, Craft Junkie Too, Making the World Cuter, Craft O Maniac, Keeping it Simple, Polish the Stars, Sumo's Sweet,

Baking: Easter Chocolate Chip Cookies with M&M's

 Remember my new favorite cookie recipe?

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

Click HERE for the original blog post and recipe

Well, this week we made them EASTER cookies!

To put an Easter spin on an already awesome cookie recipe try these:

These HUGE over-sized cookies were made with this totally awesome Muffin Top pan.

Just fill the bottom of each muffin top opening with cookie dough.

Then, sprinkle with super yummy Easter M&M's! 

Sooooo good!

Easy and Delicious!

Be sure to give em a try!!!

Baking: Layered Peanut Butter Bars

I can't believe this is my second blog post about BAKING!

Any of you who know me personally know that I'm all about the sweets. In fact, my mother in law has always said that my pantry smells like chocolate.

(That MAY or may not be a true statement)

Today I'm going to share with you a super yummy recipe from Betty Crocker for Layered Peanut Butter Bars.

If you LOVE the Chocolate and Peanut Butter combination you must try these!

You can go HERE to see the recipe: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/layered-peanut-butter-bars/6dbed0aa-c1bd-4068-8eb2-6ae176550ebf

Ingredients / Directions

Cookie Base

1	pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® peanut butter cookie mix
3	tablespoons vegetable oil
1	tablespoon water
1	egg

Filling

1/2	cup butter, softened
1/2	cup creamy peanut butter
2	cups powdered sugar
2	teaspoons milk

Frosting

1	cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4	cup butter

Directions

1. 1 Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom of 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray.
2. 2 In large bowl, stir all Cookie Base ingredients until soft dough forms. Press dough in bottom of pan using floured fingers. Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
3. 3 In small bowl, beat all Filling ingredients with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Spread mixture evenly over cookie base.
4. 4 In microwavable bowl, microwave all Frosting ingredients on High 30 seconds; stir until smooth.  (I made my own frosting for this particular recipe /photo above)
5. Cool 10 minutes; spread over filling. Refrigerate 30 minutes or until set. For bars, cut into 9 rows by 4 rows.

Mo Momma TIP- HIDE FROM YOUR KIDS! SOO YUMMY!

REVIEW- 10 out of 10! In fact, we didn't even share these with KidMo! He still has no idea they were even in the house :) THAT is how yummy they are!

What is YOUR favorite treat to make?? 

Linky Parties: Fabric Bows and More,

Dinner: Chicken Pot Pie & Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

For tonight's Dinner adventure we had homemade Chicken Pot Pie.

I promise you once you make it from scratch you will never want to eat one of those frozen meals again! This one is SO easy!

Click HERE for the recipe, or read below for the exact steps I took.
(PS- If you have a box of Bisquick - it's on the back of the box!)

For the pot-pie mixture:
1/2 bag frozen Peas & Carrots mixture (thawed)
1 Can Cream of Chicken Campbell's soup
1-2 cups cut up cooked Chicken (ours was from the previous night's recipe leftovers!)
1 cup milk

For the crust topping:
1 Cup Bisquick
1/2 Cup milk
1 Egg

Step 1: Place pot pie mixture in bottom of pie plate or similar 9 inch size baking plate.
Step 2: In separate bowl, mix three ingredients for crust topping until combined. Then, pour over pot pie mixture
Step 3: Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes uncovered.




THE FEEDBACK: 10 out of 10 - WOHOO!

KID FEEDBACK: 2 out of 10
We had to fight with "Kid-MO" a little to eat his dinner. He did like the Bisquick topping as well as the chicken inside. He didn't appreciate the "sauce" or the veggies that were touching his meat (he's four - what do you expect). We got him to to try it, and he ate enough to get full. That is success for us!

ESTIMATED COST OF DINNER: $2.00
$1.00 Cream of Chicken
.25 Chicken (leftovers)
.50 Frozen veggies- 1/2 bag
.25 Bisquick, eggs, milk

For Desert: Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

This Cookie recipe came out of the 101 Gourmet Cookies Cookbook.
I got this for Christmas. Yummy cookie ideas!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 4oz package vanilla pudding (mine was 3.5 oz and worked fine)
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/4 cups flour
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Cream butter and sugars together
3. Add vanilla and eggs along with pudding mix
4. In separate bowl, mix together baking soda and flour
5. Slowly add in flour mixture until well combined
6. Drop small 1 inch balls of cookie dough onto cookie sheets
7. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes until edges are just browned.

Enjoy!

THE FEEDBACK: 10 out of 10 - for sure.
The cookies were really yummy. The pudding makes them a little softer and sweeter than a normal chocolate chip cookie (which is fine by me - Bring on the sweet!).

Here is a photo of the Cookbook. I highly recommend it.
The yummy Cupcake to the left is my cookie jar :) SO cute.