Chocolate Peanut Butter Hi-Hat Cupcakes

There is just really something fun with the Hi-Hat cupcake. The idea of a chocolate dipped cupcake with a mountain of frosting underneath sounds ridiculous and decadent at the same time. I have been wanting to make these for a while now. I can check this one off my list today. Since the majority of my cupcakes go with the hubby to work, his co-workers are starting to find which ones they like best ( I have yet to have anyone not like them, just some prefer certain ones over the others) and the chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting seems to be the standout. One of my husband's co-workers is pregnant and has requested me to make these. Myself being a pregnant gal as well right now just had to make these for her. Never deny a pregnant woman a craving!! They had all loved the Valentine's Hi-Hat cupcakes I made so why not change it up a bit with my chocolate peanut butter combo and make these Hi-Hats too? I used a different cupcake recipe, a chocolate sour cream cupcake recipe I got out of the Cupcakes! book by Elinor Klivans. She just so happens to have a traditional Hi-Hat recipe in this book and it is on my list to make as well. The typical frosting for a Hi-Hat is a marshmallow type frosting. I love marshmallow so I will have to make these. And probably soon!

Getting my ingredients ready, sugar and flour mixture. 

Eggs, sour cream and milk. The recipe calls for water and I think water does NOTHING for a recipe. Doesn't add anything flavor wise so I always sub with milk for a richer flavor.

This recipe calls for melted chocolate not dry cocoa powder which I think lends for a deeper chocolate flavor. Chopped up unsweetened chocolate.

Melted over a pan of simmering water til smooth and cooled until ready to go 

Butter and sugar creaming nicely

Adding in the melted and cooled chocolate to the butter sugar mixture

yummy

The recipe says it yields 18 cupcakes I think it would have easily made 22. The baked out over onto my pans, not puffing up. So I had to trim the edges off most of them to get the look I wanted. Plus it was fun to sample the trimmings!!

Getting ready to make the peanut butter frosting. Everything is better with butter!!

Butter and creamy peanut butter mixed together

it gets crumbly when the powdered sugar is added but then after the heavy cream is mixed in it is super smooth

 piped onto the cupcakes using a big plain round tip. The swirls don't HAVE to be perfect ( which is a good thing in my case) since they are going to be covered in chocolate. You can see where I trimmed off the edges of the cupcakes. Chill the cupcakes in the refrigerator until ready to dip.

Semi sweet chocolate melted and cooled with a touch of canola oil to keep in liquid enough long enough for dipping all the cupcakes

The look like those yummy dipped ice cream cones from Dairy Queen. When dipping, if all the edges don't get chocolate on them, lightly spoon more over, hold upside down a few seconds to let the excess drip off.

I decided to get all fancy and use some of my leftover peanut butter candy melts from some cake pops I made. Don't ask about the cake pops. Those were a disaster to make. I will leave those to Bakerella the cake pop goddess. Anyways. I melted these in a disposable pastry bag in my microwave on half powder, 30 seconds at a time until ready to use.

Fancy huh?

I like the way these came out. I didn't cut one in half though. Maybe my husband will have one tonight when he gets home from work and I will add in a picture of one cut in half before he devours!!

 Hubby wanted to try one so I made him cut it in half first for a pic!

He said it was really good!!

Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes recipe

(adapted from Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans)

Ingredients

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 c. sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 c. milk

Directions
Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl or the top of a double boiler placed over, but not touching, barely simmering water.  Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth.  Remove from the water and set aside to cool slightly.
Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until smoothly blended and creamy, about 2 minutes.  Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing.  On low speed, mix in the melted chocolate.  On medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is blended into the batter.  Add the vanilla and beat until the mixture looks creamy and the color has lightened slightly, about 1 minute.  Mix in the sour cream until no white streaks remain.  On low speed, add half of hte flour mixture, mixing just to incorporate it.  Mix in the water.  Mix in the remaining flour mixture until it is incorporated and the batter looks smooth.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Fill muffin cups with cupcake liners with about 1/3 c. batter.  Bake about 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes on wire rack and turn out to cool completely.  Yields 18 cupcakes.

Peanut Butter Frosting Recipe

Ingredients

½ cup softened unsalted butter

1 cup creamy peanut butter ( skippy etc not natural pb)

2 cups powdered sugar

¼ or so heavy cream

Directions

combine butter with peanut butter and cream add powdered sugar ( mixture will be stiff) then add the heavy cream a little at a time until you get the consistency you like for spreading or piping. Try not to eat it all before it makes it onto your cake or cupcakes. Its seriously good

you can also use crunchy peanut butter

Chocolate Coating Recipe

Ingredients

2 cups (12 ounces) semi sweet chocolate chips or baking bar chopped up

3-2 tsp canola oil

Directions

Melt chocolate in a double boiler or in a heat proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water ( but not touching) Stir frequently. Once the chocolate is smooth mix in the canola oil and transfer to a smaller, deeper bowl. One that will be better for dipping. Let cool for 10-15 min before dipping. Enjoy!!

Girl Scout Cookie Cupcakes "Tagalongs"

I made the homemade Tagalongs the other day and because this is a blog that's supposed to be mainly about cupcakes I just HAD to make a cupcake version of it.  A friend had come across a Samoa cupcake over on one of my favorite cupcake blogs Cupcakes Take the cake and said that it had my name all over it since I was making homemade girl scout cookies. Well since I had made the Tagalongs first I decided to go with this in cupcake form first. I may or may not get to all the homemade Girl Scout cookies and cupcake versions here soon but I will eventually. I have a GIANT ever growing list of cupcakes I want to make from new flavors to try to perfecting ones I have been making forever to new decorating techniques. So don't you all worry I will get to these cupcakes eventually because even I am DYING for some thin mints and thin min cupcakes!!

We started buying our eggs from a local farm recently instead of at the grocery store. I just LOVE the color of the eggs we have been getting from creams to tans to browns, speckled and even GREEN! They don't come in uniform sizes like at the store since well they aren't sorted so finding ones that are considered to be larges isn't always easy. 

The yolks are a deeper yellow than store bought. This was my first time baking with them. I have eaten them for breakfast now a few times and the taste is way better, richer almost. So I wondered if one can tell a difference in a cupcake.

Since Tagalongs aka Peanut Butter Patties come in the RED box I figured I could finally use these red liners I bought a while ago and for some reason had yet to use them

All my ingredients lined up. I tried a new recipe for this cupcake. I recently bought 3 new cupcake cookbooks and this one came from "Cupcakes" by Shelly Kaldunski

The batter was a nice creamy yellow. I was looking for a buttery cupcake with just a hint of vanilla since the cookie in the Tagalong is a buttery cookie

Ready for the oven

They smelled really good fresh out of the oven

I like the dome they got when baking. I love my recipes from Warren Brown's Cakelove but they tend to be a little flatter topped and this was what I was looking for this time. I was stoked!

Not totally sure what happened to this one. I think maybe some sugar and butter clumps that didn't get mixed all the way in and blew out during baking. I've never had this happen before but hey that's what LOTS of frosting is for. Cover up the oops!

For the filling I used my peanut butter frosting that I use for my chocolate peanut butter cupcakes instead of the same peanut butter mixture that I used in the tagalongs. It's a bit creamier and easier to pipe into cupcakes. I made a big batch because I am going to be making some cupcakes in the near future with them per request. So stay tuned you will see this frosting again in a few days.

Filled using my Wilton Bismark tip ( with a couple this time so I wouldn't have any mishaps like I did with my Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes)

I added a little round of the peanut butter on top because well one can't have too much peanut butter frosting

I have 3 chocolate frosting recipes in my file but I wanted more of a chocolate fudge taste to match the Tagalong chocolate coating so I took two of my recipes and combined but then tweaked again and came up with this one. Cocoa whisked together with powdered sugar and meringue powder

It doesn't look very dark but once it was mixed into the butter and vanilla it turned dark brown

Really tasty. I am happy with how this came out

My favorite tip for piping on those pretty swirls. This is a MUST have for any baker/decorator. I have probably 5 of them in my decorating kit. I have a few others that are giant open star tips or my 1M's on steroids ha ha

Pretty 1M swirl

I was really happy with how my swirls came out and almost didn't want to shove a cookie in them to squish it but since these are Tagalong cupcakes I just HAD to decorate with one of the homemade Tagalongs that I made

A cookie on a cupcake. Does it get much better than that??

My husband INSISTED on taste testing one...

He said it was "Damn good"  I'll take it. 

Yellow Cupcakes Recipe

From Cupcakes by Shelly Kaldunski

Makes 12 regular sized cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar

6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temp

2 large eggs, at room temp

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup whole milk

Directions:

Position rack in middle of oven, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a standard 12 cup muffin pan with paper or foil liners

In a bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.

In another bowl using an electric hand mixer or using a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and then add the vanilla and beat until just combined. Add the flour in three additions alternating with the milk. Don't wait for the flour mixture to be mixed in before adding the milk. You want the flour to be just barely combined. Scrape down the sides and then beat on medium -high speed just until no traces of flour remain about 30 seconds. Do not over beat.

Distribute evenly into the 12 cups, about 3/4 of the way full. Bake until lightly golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or the top springs back when gently pressed. About 17-20 min. Let the cupcakes cool in pan for 5 minutes then take out of pan and transfer to wire rack to cool completely before filling and frosting, About an hour.

Peanut Butter Filling/Frosting Recipe

Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes and fill probably 100. ha ha

Ingredients:

1/2 cup ( 1 stick) unsalted butter softened

1 cup creamy peanut butter ( you can use crunchy for frosting but not for filling. Chunks of peanuts might get stuck in the piping tip) also use regular peanut butter like Skippy don't use natural peanut butter.

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup or so whipping cream

Directions:

Cream together the butter and peanut butter until well mixed together. You can use a deep bowl with a hand electric mixer or a stand mixer. Add the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time. So you don't have powder sugar flying all over the place. Add the vanilla and mix well. Then add the cream slowly a little bit at a time until you get the consistency that you want or think is good for piping. I think I use a little more than 1/4 cup

Chocolate Fudge ButterCream Frosting Recipe

Makes enough to frost 18 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter room temp ( 2 sticks)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 lb ( 4 cups) powdered sugar 

2 tsp meringue powder

1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa powder

4-5 tbsp whipping cream

4 ounces of semi sweet chocolate melted and cooled. Use Baker's chocolate squares or a baking bar NOT chocolate chips/morsels

Directions:

In a separate bowl whisk together the powdered sugar, cocoa powder and meringue powder, set aside.

Cream the butter til light and fluffy, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl once in a while. Add the vanilla and beat on med-high until mixed in.  Mix in  one third of the powdered sugar cocoa mixture on low until mixed in then add 1-2 tbsp of the cream and beat on high until well incorporated. Repeat until all of the powdered sugar cocoa mixture has been added but no more than 5 tbps of cream has been added. Mix on high stopping to scrape down the sides as necessary. Add in the melted and cooled chocolate and beat on medium until light and fluffy. This is a pretty thick frosting and holds up well when piped. You can add more whipping cream to thin out a little but not too much. If you want a ganache type glaze then well this isn't the recipe for you. I do have a ganache recipe but I'm not posting it here right now. 

Just in case you forgot what it looks like when all finished since this is such a long post!