Peanut Butter Cupcakes

I wouldn't have thought of doing this had I not had a glut of peanut butter and a desperate need to bake something.  So, yesterday afternoon I set about using my new baking book Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery and, having looked up the recipe for peanut butter cupcakes - my idea being that I should make something which resembled one of my favourite chocolate bars (Snickers) - I set about making it.  Now, this recipe is very easy:

130g smooth peanut butter
75g unsalted butter
190g soft dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
120g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
60ml semi-skimmed milk
Pinch of salt
1tps vanilla extract

Me being me I got incredibly confident.  I followed the recipe to the letter, mixing the peanut butter, butter and sugar until it was smooth and light

Before it's mixed up

After ingredients are creamed together

Once this was done I started to add the other ingredients; the eggs, the flour, the baking powder, it made a smooth and incredibly beautiful glossy batter which fell off the spoon nicely.

Beautiful - well, I think so anyway

It was at this point that my super-stupid confidence kicked in and I did something idiotic.  As you can see from the ingredient list at the beginning there is mention of milk; well, me being me, I didn't add it.  To my eyes the batter looked perfect - even more so after I had added 40g of dark chocolate chips tossed in flour into the batter - so I didn't see the need to add the milk.  Having coated the bottom of each cupcake case with a cookie crumble (made simply by crushing some chocolate chip cookies with a rolling pin - 6 provided enough crumb for the 12 cases though next time I think that I should not crush it quite so finely and perhaps use more) I simply spooned the batter into the cases and put them in the oven (fan assisted pre-heated to 160).

Before they went in the oven

I can't help thinking that perhaps the milk was a necessary ingredient if only because they took much longer than the recommended 20 minutes in the oven, though they rose incredibly well.

After 8 minutes in the oven

After 15 minutes in the oven

After 30 minutes in the oven - 10 minutes over the recommended time

After 10 extra minutes the tester came out clean and the cakes sprang up immediately when tested with my finger.

I removed the cakes from the tin after 10 minutes out of the oven and left them to cool on a tray.  It is at this point I realised that the milk was an ingredient I will not forget next time.  The top of each cake was much firmer than I would have liked, almost as though it had formed a rather solid crust which made the cake more crumbly than airy and soft.

Once the cakes were cooled enough I decided to make a chocolate frosting.  I love sweet foods but I have always found frosting is far too sweet and on top of a cake that is already sweet it's too much.  I made ganache the normal way:

30g unsalted butter
90ml of cream (I used Elmlea - yes, sort of like locking the stable door after the horse has bolted but I don't have cream in my fridge)
300g dark chocolate chips

Once I had melted the chocolate chips in the warmed cream and butter I then set about making it less sickly sweet.  I added the following, 300g full fat cream cheese (beaten into the warm mixture it was quickly smooth) and 1 tbsp of smooth peanut butter.

The chocolate and cream cheese frosting

I also made a caramel using 135ml of water and 250g golden caster sugar and a 1/4tsp of salt (sweet on top of sweet on top of sweet is too much for this girl).

It took me 10 minutes to frost the cupcakes, drizzle some caramel on top and then sprinkle with a few grains of rock salt...

The best of the bunch

They were much more close-crumb than I would have liked, needed more cookie on the bottom and the frosting was much more than was really necessary.  All in all not a bad effort, but next time I will not forget the milk!