PeanutButterPalooza

I had a very busy weekend and am still trying to recuperate. Thus being MIA for so long. But this should give you some great insight into what a caring and thoughtful individual I am. This weekend was TOBAC's birthday. Now for those of you in the know~ Laurie at Quirky Cupcake whom I love but demands I link to her at least once a week or she'll deny knowing me devoted Cupcake Hero to her husband last month cause it was his birthday. She definitely belongs in the League of Extraordinary Wives. And when she asked if I would consider cohosting this month's Cupcake Hero do you think I even considered for a nanosecond the fact that TOBAC's birthday is this month. Uhm, the answer would be...
No
Not even for a nanosecond.
In fact it was all about me- bring on the alcohol!

Yeah, so if I was in fact a caringlovingdevoted wife I would have mentioned that TOBAC loves peanut butter. I believe it has been mentioned. I'm personally not a big fan of peanut butter but this was all about him this weekend so I present to you PeanutButterPalooza!



Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting and a Peanut Butter Whopper on top~ ~ whew! ~
Make 18 cupcakes
Cupcakes:
3/4 cup (12 T) Butter
3/4 cup Sugar
4 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
1/3 cup Buttermilk
1 3/4 cups sifted AP Flour
1/4 tsp Salt
2 tsp Baking Powder
16 oz. Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter (some for cupcakes and some for frosting)

The man of the hour! Ehhrr, weekend.

Cream together butter and sugar until light, 2 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. Add buttermilk. Add vanilla. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder on low just until flour is incorporated. Fill cupcake liner with batter about 2/3 full.
Scoop 1 T of chocolate peanut buttter onto cupcake batter and gently swirl in to marble somewhat. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.






Peanut Butter Frosting:
1- 8 oz. pckg Cream Cheese, softened to room temp
1 cup Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter
1 T vanilla
4 cups Powdered Sugar

Cream together cream cheese and peanut butter over low speed. Add vanilla then gradually add powdered sugar one cup at a time. Mix until just incorporated. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes.



Coming Clean
Hooboy! These were peanut buttery to the max. It was nice marbling the cupcake since the peanut butter frosting really put this over the top. And I found the peanut butter whoppers while standing in the grocerly line waiting to pay. There they were staring back. Beckoning. Buy me... The people who love peanut butter really freak out over these. Me, I'm like meh. It's a good cupcake. Perfect texture. I'm just not a PB kinda gal. But it was mentioned more than once that this was the ultimate big glass of ice cold milk kinda cupcake.

Quite the perfect cherry on top, no?

Everybody has been freaking out over this recipe making the rounds through blogdom and it definitely fit the PB bill. I also topped them with an additional mini Reeses peanut butter cup so people would have a hint about what was inside.



The Ultimate Reeces Peanut Butter Banana Bread making its appearance as muffins!
Made 3 dozen
1 and 1/2 cups (3 sticks) softened Butter
2 cups Sugar
5 Eggs
½ cup Peanut Butter
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
¼ teaspoon Salt
1 small box Vanilla Pudding Mix (4 serving size)
2 cups Flour
6 ripe Bananas
30 Recees Peanut Butter minis + 36 for topping (was a big bag of Reeses minis with 3 left over)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream the butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs until smooth. Add peanut butter, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, pudding mix and flour until combined. Stir in bananas and Reeces.
Pour batter into muffin liners (I used the metal/ paper dual combo and they worked perfectly). Press a single mini reeses peanut butter cup into the center.
Bake 20-25 minutes. Let cool before moving to a rack to cool completely, they will be soft.




Coming Clean
I hooked these bad boys up with the football platter. Cause sports, and especially college football, are as important to TOBAC as beer and breathing.
These muffins were INCREDIBLE! I can see why everyone has been freaking out about them. You've got banana, peanut butter, chocolate but nothing overpowers the other. The muffin recipe itself is strong. Very moist and sweet~ but they're certainly not your "go to" option for breakfast every morning. Now I refuse to call them a cupcake. Cause I have moral standards when it comes to cupcakes. Total cupcake snob. And these were definitely muffins by my completely arbitrary standards. But these were damn good muffins.
Monkey totally freaked out when I told her I made these for TOBAC to take to work for his birthday. I assured her we would keep 6, which was now 4, and gave TOBAC 30 to take in. You should have seen the major thought process going on behind those angelic eyes. Calculating. "So, you and dad don't want any more?"