Challenge #6: The Devil Made Me Do It And I Liked It

 

October was a great month for cupcakes. It seemed liked every time I turned around, I had another reason to make a new batch, and folks, that's exactly what I did. 

My Birthday had just passed and my Mother had been kind enough to bake me a cake :)

Unfortunately, it was a carrot cake, which I don't like. I felt bad, since my Mom had put so much effort into it, but I'm glad everyone else got to enjoy it.

I decided to make myself some cupcakes when I got back home. Ron's Mom's Boyfriend's birthday was quickly coming up, so it worked out that I could make him cupcakes and still have them for my own Birthday.

I broke out The Icing On The Cupcake and looked for a recipe that would measure up to this particular challenge. The Devil Made Me Do It And I Liked It, sounded just perfect.

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp (or 1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room tempurature

3 eggs, room tempurature

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup strong coffee

1 1/4 cups cake flour

1/2 cup Dutch-processed unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp finely ground salt

Preheat the oven to 325'. Place 12 paper liners into cupcake trays.

Cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.

Add the eggs and beat another 2 minutes.

Whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt together.

Mix the buttermilk and vanilla together. Beat in a 1/3 of the flour mixture. Beat in the buttermilk mixture. Add a 1/3 of the flour mixture.

Add the coffee. Add the rest of the flour mixture and mix until combined.

Pour the batter into the paper liners. Fill the tins halfway. (If I made this recipe again, I would fill them a little bit more, but that's just me)

Bake 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool for 5 minutes and then place on baking racks.

Peanut Butter Buttercream Filling

1/2 cup (or 1 stick) unsalted butter, room tempurature

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 1/4 cups sifted powdered sugar

Cream the butter and peanut butter together until smooth.

Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.

Fit a pastry bag with a medium plain tip

Fill the pastry bag with the filling

Insert the tip into each cupcake and squeeze about 3 tbsp of filling into each cupcake. (I had never done this before and wasn't sure how much I was squeezing into each, so I didn't squeeze too hard. It turned out that I didn't put very much into any of them. I will squeeze harder next time for optimum filling.)

Ganache

4 oz semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 cup roasted peanuts, chopped

Place chocolate in medium bowl

Bring the cream to a scald in a small saucepan. (I had to look up how to scald milk here)

Pour cream over chocolate and let sit about 1 minute, them whisk until smooth.

Let sit for 10 minutes, until thick but still pourable

Dunk the top half of the cupcake into the frosting to coat, then place on a rack.

Sprinkle with chopped peanuts. 

I'm sure you can buy chopped peanuts somewhere, but if not, I find the easiest way of chopping them is to actually crush them with the flat of a knife blade. It works wonders.

These may have been the best cupcakes I've ever made!. I will totally make these again, and probably soon! They take a bit of extra work, but it's totally worth it.