Vanilla Peanut Butter Cupcakes in a Chocolate Shell

Vanilla Cupcakes

Adapted from Love and Olive Oil
Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup almond meal (if you don't have almond meal you can also put whole almonds in a blender until finely chopped)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup oil
1 vanilla bean (seeds only)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine milk and vinegar and stir to combine. Set aside for 5 minutes. Mixture will eventually curdle.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, almond meal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Whisk sugar, oil, vanilla bean, and extract into curdled milk mixture. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until relatively smooth. Fill silicone cupcake liners with 3 Tablespoons of batter (cups should be just under 2/3 of the way full). Bake for 20-22 minutes or until lightly golden, and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Shells

Adapted from Sweetest Kitchen
Makes enough for 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips
4 tablespoons peanut butter

Directions:

Line a cupcake pan with 12 paper cupcake liners.

Melt chocolate chips in double boiler. Stir in the 2 tablespoons peanut butter until smooth and combined.

Drop 1-2 tablespoons of melted chocolate into one paper cupcake liner at a time and use a small spoon to entirely coat the paper liner with a thick layer of chocolate.

When finished coating all the liners, put the tray into the refrigerator until the chocolate is solid.

Place cupcake inside. 

Peanut Butter Frosting

Adapted from Bakers Royale
Makes enough for 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 cup cup creamy peanut butter (or more depending on your preference)
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

Directions:

Beat heavy cream with whisk attachment until soft peaks form. Set aside.

Place remaining ingredients in a bowl fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium-low speed until creamy.

Fold peanut butter mixture into whipped cream with a wooden spoon until combined.

Frost cupcakes as desired.

ALL-AMERICAN CUPCAKES

American Cupcake
1919 Union St, San Francisco

American Cupcake is unlike any other cupcakery I have seen. The décor is eclectic-an old school diner look with colorful lights everywhere. AC holds the be all/end all of cupcake/alcohol pairings.

Flights were $16 each and usually include 3 mini cupcakes and 3 glasses of beer or wine. Luckily for us, they were out of minis so we got 3 full-sized cupcakes for each of us! I had a wine pairing flight called the Walk of Shame and Amanda had a beer pairing flight called “Beer n’ Chocolate” (which of course I had to sample).  

The pairings:

Lemon/Red Velvet(they ran out of Butterscotch)/Coconut
Sauvignon Blanc/Chardonnay/Merlot
The Red Velvet was nothing spectacular and the lemon was yummy.  I’ve never been a huge fan of coconut but the coconut cupcake was definitely the winner of the wine flight.

Chocolate PB/Chococlate Mint/Chocolate Coconut
Bison Chocolate Stout/Hitachino Nest/ Heifeweizen
Again, not a huge fan of chocolate and mint together but surprisingly it worked fabulously in this cupcake.  The chocolate peanut butter and the chocolate coconut  cupcakes were good as well.  Too much chocolate though, wish there was more variety in this flight!

I wouldn’t say the alcohol necessarily accented the cupcakes’ flavors but I am not one to turn down wine or beer with my cupcakes :)

peace, love, and cupcakes
michy