cupcakes!!

I am not a fan of store bought, thickly iced, with little hard icing flowers on top kind of cake. They're fine, but if I'm gonna consume sugar, it's gotta be something I really love. Like maybe homemade apple cake with cream cheese icing, or coffee cake with cinnamon streusel, or blueberry muffins with crumb topping... or... cupcakes!
The first time I made cupcakes was for Drew's first birthday. The theme of his party was "Our little pumpkins turning one" (october birthday) and I made yellow cake cupcakes and iced them in orange, so they looked like pumpkins with a little half pretzel stick "stem". They were cute.
I haven't made cupcakes again for awhile, but right after I had Isaiah one of our good family friends brought us dinner and they had made homemade white chocolate chip cupcakes with raspberry buttercream icing. They were garnished with fresh raspberries, and they were SO good... :)
So I decided that when I got a chance sometime I wanted to make cupcakes again... the flavor combos and garnishes are so fun! My sister found a recipe for chai latte cupcakes... and I found a recipe for chocolate peanut butter cupcakes... and when I was asked to bring dessert to the Hartman's house last Friday, you can guess what I decided to make :)

There they are in all their glory :)  Chai on the left, peanut butter on the right. 

There were some really happy kids that night... 

Even though chocolate and peanut butter is one of my favorite flavor combinations (I think most girls feel this way...) if there had been a competition, I think the chai would have won. 

Now for the most important part... the recipes!! 

Chai Latte Cupcakes: 

Cake

1

box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® French vanilla cake mix

Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box

1

package (1.1 oz) instant chai tea latte mix (or 3 tablespoons from larger container)

Frosting and Garnish

1

cup white vanilla baking chips

1

container Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy vanilla frosting

Ground cinnamon, if desired

Make cupcakes as directed, mixing in chai latte mix before baking. Melt white chocolate chips in microwave and stir into frosting, then spread on cupcakes and garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon (And I sprinkled on some sugar in the raw for a little crystal effect) -Thankyou Randi for introducing me to this heavenliness!!! 

Next up:

Chocolate Peanut Butter!! 

K for this one I just used a boxed cake mix, betty crocker, triple chocolate fudge, and made the cupcakes as instructed. I made the icing from scratch, here's the recipe for that: 

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/3 cup heavy cream

Mix together all but cream, beat well, then add cream slowly and continue beating. I spread this on the cupcakes and then chopped up miniature reeses cups and used those for a garnish. :) 

Have fun! But be warned- each recipe makes 24 cupcakes.... so unless you want 48 cupcakes on hand, make sure you have somewhere to take them! After taking some to the Hartman's, we used some for our football party the next night and took the rest to my parents house on sunday afternoon. Thankfully we only came home with 4... and those 4 are now gone. I won't say where they went....