Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Cream Frosting: One of my top three

In my quest to out-do myself and impress Nate, I made these chocolate peanut butter cupcakes.  I am trying to make a cupcake that Nate likes even more than the cookies and cream cupcakes, but I am still unsuccessful.  This is one of my top three favorites, though.  My top three, in no particular order, are Chai Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream (my best buttercream to date), these chocolate brownie cupcakes with peanut butter cream frosting, and my canoli cupcakes.  So, how did these cupcakes earn a spot in the top three.  Well. each part of the cupcake is delicious on it's own.  Especially that peanut butter cream frosting.  The frosting recipe I have always makes extra frosting, so I keep a jar of it in my refridgerator and snack on it all by itself!  I also use Ghirardelli chocolate chips in this recipe, Ghirardelli is my favorite chocolate.  And, lastly, chocolate and peanut butter is just always a delicious combination.

 

Decorated with a cupcake topping a cupcake - an idea from "Confessions of a Cookbook Queen"

Peanut Butter Chip Cupcakes with a Banana Buttercream: An Inside out cupcake?

Peanut butter and banana is a timeless combination.  People usually make a banana cupcake with a peanut butter frosting, but I took the combination in a different direction.  These are Martha Stewart's peanut butter cupcakes with peanut butter chips added to the batter for some change in texture.  The cupcake is topped with a banana buttercream.  These cupcakes fed a lot of hungry cadets at the Academy!