Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

Out of all of my friends' parents, I've probably spent the most time with Jeff's. Scott and Sarah put up with me during most of high school when I really didn't even want to put up with myself. I didn't see them as much during college and now with Jeff gone, I haven't seen either Scott or Sarah except for brief sightings at the store.
So I wanted to make them cupcakes. I decided that this recipe would be a place to start. The recipe is from Sweet Treats Baking Blog. It sounded like a good idea, peanut butter cupcakes with a chocolate frosting...a delicious Reese's cup in cupcake form.

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Ingredients
Cupcakes:
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter, room temp
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk

Glaze:
1/4 heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

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Preheat oven to 350. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.
Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl and set aside

In a large bowl, beat the butter, peanut butter and brown sugar until smoothly blended and lightened in color, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. Add egg. Mix. Add vanilla. Mix for an additional minute or until smooth.

Add the flour mixture in 3 portions and the milk in 2 portions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and mixing until the flour is incorporated and the batter looks smooth.

Fill each liner with a generous 1/4 cup of batter, to about 1/3 inch below the top of the liner. Bake just until the tops feel firm and are lightly browned about 25 minutes. There will be cracks on the top. Cool.

In a medium saucepan, heat the cream and butter over low heat until the cream is hot and the butter is melted. The mixture should form tiny bubbles and be about 175 degrees F on a thermometer. Do not boil.

Remove the pan from the heat, add the milk chocolate and let it sit in the hot cream for 30 secs to soften. Add the vanilla and whisk the glaze until it is smooth and all the chocolate has melted. (Return the glaze to low heat if necessary to melt the chocolate completely, whisking constantly.) The glaze should be thick enough to hold its shape when spread over the cupcakes. If it is too liquid to spread, let it sit at room temp for 5-10 minutes. Glaze cooled cupcakes.

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Now, if you can tell from the heinous picture, I did not use the chocolate glaze recipe. I used the chocolate buttercream recipe from the Earth Day Cupcakes

Chocolate Buttercream
Chocolate Buttercream
1/2 cup butter @ room temp.
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
3-5 tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla

These cupcakes did end up tasting alright. But, they just weren't something I was willing to take to someone else. The cupcakes were dense and the liners kept peeling off the cupcakes making it look like someone had molested them. For taste they get a 7/10; but for appearance and ease to work with they rock out around a 3/10.

Sooo, I'm still looking for something to bake Scott and Sarah. Maybe I can just make something cutesy and give it to her for mother's day.