Chocolate + Peanut Butter = Happiness!

I had a birthday recently, as I am wont to do every year or so. Usually I find birthdays agree with me quite well, but this one was a bit obnoxious. As I lay snoozing in my idle, comfortable youth, a birthday marched in, picked me up and dumped me unceremoniously into my late twenties.

I should have seen it coming.

Now, I've got nothing against the late twenties per se. Generally speaking, they seem very well behaved, and I'm sure that once I get to know them a little better we'll be good friends. It's just that they seem so...so... grown up!


To combat this impending sense of responsibility, there was nothing for it but to bake myself a big, chocolatey, drowning in icing birthday cake.

I found this cupcake recipe a while ago on Joy the Baker and whipped them up to take to a pot luck.

Oh. My. Goodness.

The cake is good, there's no doubt, but the frosting is addictive. The first time I made this, I had a bunch of frosting left over. Aside from the boring old tradition of compulsively sticking my fingers into it every time I opened the refrigerator, I also used it as a crepe filling, plunked it in my oatmeal and (she said without shame) spread it on my toast. All in moderation, of course. Let's not get carried away here.

The original recipe calls for 1 cup of cocoa powder, but the thought of using that much of my organic, fair trade, rather expensive cocoa on one recipe made me break out in a nervous rash, so I cut that sucker in half. If you're all about the chocolate flavour you can step it up, but I found that 1/2 cup was sufficiently chocolatey. Also, the original baking time of 20-25 minutes was meant for cupcakes, and that ain't no joke! If you take your 9x13" cake out after only 25 minutes, it will be very dense and a bit wet...I, however, was in a hurry and didn't care all that much. It was still delicious.

 Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Adapted (barely) from Joy the Baker

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons white vinegar
2 cups cold water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, sift all the dry ingredients together. (Important step! Get all of those pesky little lumps out of your cocoa!) Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk the remaining ingredients (oil, water, vanilla, vinegar) together, then whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. (Or, if you're like me, do it all in one bowl and save yourself another dish to wash. Efficiency is the name of the game!)

Pour the batter into a greased 9x13" pan and bake for 35-40 minutes. (For cupcakes, fill the paper cups 2/3 full and bake for 20-25 minutes).

Let it cool before frosting.

Frosting!!

Note: butter is a LOT easier to work with when it's at room temperature. Don't take it out of the freezer 10 minutes before you plan to use it like I do. You have better things to do with your time than try to hack through frozen butter.

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3-4 cups icing sugar (depending on how thick and creamy you like it)
1 tablespoon milk (I forgot this bit, but it still turned out fine)

If you are blessed enough to have a stand mixer, beat the butter and peanut butter together with the paddle attachment. Otherwise, use your hand mixer and build up a bit of muscle.

Add three cups of powdered sugar and beat on low for about a minute. Add milk and beat on medium high for a minute. If you want your frosting a bit thicker, add the 4th cup of icing sugar.

Smear generously onto cake (or cupcakes) and enjoy the magic.