"No not the gum drops!"

I should really be doing more productive things with my time, but instead, I've been indulging in food porn on A Muffin Story again. Also, I've given up on "eating healthy" and "working out" for the rest of the winter. Good thing it's already March 1st and starting to get warm out.

So, I endeavored to make a basic chocolate frosting recipe last night to go on cupcakes to be made at a later time. Basically, I wanted frosting. I looked up a relatively simple recipe online (which I can't find now) that went something like this:

1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup cocoa powder
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Combine butter and cocoa until smooth, add sugar, milk, and vanilla. Mix until creamy. I understand the basics of frosting and yet silly me thought I should double the recipe so I stupidly creamed 1 cup of butter (2 sticks) then added the cocoa powder but realized too late that I only had 1 cup left of cocoa powder, not enough to double. So then everything went out the window and I threw in the whole box of powdered sugar (which I think is only 3 cups) but couldn't stomach adding a whole other box to “double it.” I realized, of course, that some recipes just can’t be doubled, er shouldn’t be and that 3 cups is how much you need to make it sweet but beyond that you’re looking at diabetes. D came home to me happily mixing away before I flubbed the recipe and said "It smells like butter in here!" Yes, yes it does. I just eyeballed the milk too, adding it in after the powdered sugar and then remembered the vanilla at the last minute. Anyway, the whole thing came out tasting pretty good if a little buttery and that's what D and I had for dessert after his yummy chicken with lemon and capers last night.

Tonight, the cupcake. While I love my Southern Living recipe for yellow cake and feel like you can't beat the yellow cake/chocolate frosting combo, D is partial to chocolate cake or anything that's more interesting than yellow cake. Since I just made pink yellow cake cupcakes for V day I figured I'd try something new.

So, I'll be trying out this recipe:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder (no idea what double acting means)
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup chunky peanut butter
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips


In a bowl whisk together the flour, the baking powder and a pinch of salt. In another bowl with an electric mixer cream together the brown sugar, the peanut butter, and the butter and beat in the egg and the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, beating well after each addition, and stir in the chocolate chips. Divide the batter among 12 paper-lined 1/2-cup muffin tins and bake the cupcakes in the middle of a preheated 350 F oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Turn the cupcakes out onto a rack and let them cool completely.

I'll let you know how these come out. I think I'm also going to try to make a sour cream chocolate frosting as well. You can never have enough frosting.

Fudgy Sour Cream Frosting
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1-1/2 cups sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla

In a double boiler, or in a saucepan set over a pan of hot (not boiling) water, melt the chocolate chips, stirring until smooth. Transfer to a mixing bowl. Add the sour cream and the vanilla and beat, with an electric mixer on medium speed, until smooth and creamy. Let cool just slightly - until the frosting begins to thicken. But don’t wait too long because it will quickly thicken beyond spreadability. Spread frosting evenly over cake or brownies, then chill until set.
Makes enough to fill and frost one 9-inch two-layer cake, or a couple of pans of brownies.

Let's see if I don't screw it up!