Yesterday I went out for a lovely brunch. After said brunch I was in the mood for something sweet and delicious, but nothing took my fancy on the way home. I decided I would whip a batch of cupcakes to satisfy my sweet tooth. However by the time I had finished raiding the Pinoy Mart I had racked up a bill of 40,000. Rather pricey for a bit of cake. Although I now have baking ingredients in abundance.
I love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate so these little beauties really hit the spot, especially if you have a craving for Reeces peanut butter cups. You can make these as regular cupcakes or mini ones. I decided to go for minis as I think they look cuter but the larger ones I made had a moister sponge. So just go for whatever you fancy.
This mixture will make at least 12 cupcakes or about 30 mini cupcakes. If you are not planning to use that many you can half the recipe or you can freeze the cakes once they are cooked and top them with the buttercream when you want to serve them.
Ingredients
Peanut butter Cupcakes
75g of butter
8 tablespoons of peanut butter
250g of brown sugar
1 egg
250g of all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 a tablespoon of baking soda
180ml of milk
Nutella frosting
250g of icing sugar (powder sugar)
3 tablespoons of butter
2-3 tablespoons of milk
4 tablespoons of Nutella
Directions
Cream the butter and sugar together. Add in the peanut butter and mix again until light and fluffy then mix in the egg. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients and add a third of this to the butter sugar mixture. When you have stirred the flour in, add half the milk. Add another third of the flour mix and mix again. Add the second half of the milk and mix before adding the last third of the flour. Stir together until you have your cake mixture.
Put the mix into your cupcake cases and bake at around 200 degrees Celsius, for around 10 minutes for mini cupcakes and 15-20 for regular sized cupcakes. Cooking times will vary so keep an eye on them. They are done when they are springy to the touch and a chopstick or tooth pick comes out clean. When they are ready leave them to cool and cook up the next batch until all of the cake batter has been used.
To make the frosting, cream together the butter and icing sugar. This may be a little tough to begin with so add in the milk to make the process a little easier. You may need more, but just add it in drop by drop. When the mixture has reached buttercream consistency add in the Nuttella and mix again.
When the cakes have cooled they are ready to decorate. If you don’t have a piping bag you can just spread the buttercream on with a knife. Decorate the tops however you like. I used Smarties, Haribo, grated chocolate and Minstrels, but feel free to use whatever you like. Voilà naughty nutty Nutella cupcakes.
