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"

Lemon Cupcakes with Whipped Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting: An early anniversary cupcake

Nate and I were married in May of 2011.  Our wedding color was yellow and, therefore, our had a little bit of a lemon theme going.  For our favors we gave out Trader Joes lemon curd.  Generally, no one had any idea what that was, but when our guests tried it on toast, yogurt, ice-cream, and cheesecakes, they fell in love!  We had some extra lemon curd and one day I looked at the label and realized it was about the expire!  So, I had to make our anniversary cupcakes a little early.

White Hot Chocolate Cupcakes: Bringing Christmas cheer to those on duty : (

Thankfully, Nate did not have duty (for those non-military: duty is a 24 hour work shift so that the boat is able to operate at all times while in port) on Christmas!  But, 8 poor souls did!  So, I made white chocolate cupcakes with a hot chocolate buttercream frosting to bring a little Christmas cheer to an otherwise bummer of a day.

White Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting: Merry Christmas Tahoma!

This is Nate's favorite cake, made into a cupcake!  This is a white chocolate cake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting, topped with crushed candy cane.  When the candy cane sits on the frosting, it softens and give a delicious, but not overwhelming, peppermint flavor - a trick I learned from Grandma!

Chocolate Orange Cupcake: A Tribute to Terry's Tradition

Every Christmas growing up, Santa would put a Terry's chocolate orange in my stocking.  Making these cupcakes was nostalgic.  They are an orange cupcake with an orange and chocolate cream cheese frosting.  If a chocolate orange could be a frosting, it would be this one!  I made these cupcakes to welcome Nate home, home in time for Christmas!

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!

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes: An impossible cupcake to beat

This is Nate's favorite cupcake.  I think it always will be. I have tried to surpass it with flavors such as chocolate peanut butter and canoli, but they can never compete with this one!  It was a snow day, what could be better than baking cupcakes for Nate's ship on a snow day!?  This cupcake has half an oreo at the base. It is then topped with a batter filled with oreo quarters.  The cupcake is topped with an extra creamy cream cheese frosting and an oreo.