The Enchilada & Cupcake Anniversary

Saturday was my 5 year anniversary which I have dubbed the Enchilada & Cupcake anniversary. Mostly because I just really wanted enchiladas and had no interest in a fancy dinner or dressing nice or staring at each other over candlelight. I wanted mariachi music, enchiladas, guacamole and a never empty basket of tortilla chips. I didn't even want cupcakes. But I needed to make something so I could post about something so I forced the husband to pick some cupcakes he wanted. He picked peanut butter & chocolate cupcakes. Easy enough. I combed the Internet looking for the perfect recipe which I actually did not find. So instead I mixed a few recipes together.

Full disclosure about the making of these cupcakes. As the days went by I kept not making them. The husband had planned his entire day of meals and snacks around eating one of these cupcakes. Then each day there were no cupcakes. So I promised him Tuesday, Tuesday I will finally make them. To be fair I really genuinely planned to make them Monday but discovered he had purchased the wrong cocoa powder so my plans were thwarted. So Tuesday night, I was set, I was ready. Then I got tired...and whiny. Tired, whiny and pregnant which was really the crux of the problem. So some help was offered he at first offered to melt my chocolate so it could cool, an offer I accepted because it's not THAT big of a deal. Then he was whisking my flour and baking soda together and next thing you knew I was ushered into a kitchen where all the work was done except the actual throwing it into the Kitchenaid to mix all together.

Originally these were going to be chocolate with peanut butter frosting the end. Then I was like "eh slap some ganache on these bad boys" then top with frosting. Then maybe drizzle on some more ganache I mean I already had the ganache what was it going to hurt? Then I planned to top each one with a Reese's peanut butter cup. But I kept eating the cups and wasn't sure I'd have enough. So I ran what I had left through the food processor and just did a nice Reese's crumble on top. Oh and somewhere along the way I added some chocolate sprinkles to the first layer of ganache because why not? Technically these were for our five year anniversary and five years of marriage (11 years together total) totally deserve some ganache and sprinkles.

The recipe made 12 large cupcakes (probably more like 18 if you do not like a large giant cupcake like I do) and I ate one fresh from the oven. Then I had 11 and 1 didn't fit on the platter. Luckily the husband was dancing around impatiently waiting for one so I used a spoon to slap on some frosting and did a drizzle and shooed him away. He was in heaven and did not speak for at least ten minutes which BTW is a record. The frosting recipe I threw together made just enough for frosting 11 cupcakes but I piped the frosting and I put a lot on. If you are big on piping and are crazy about frosting like I am then I would suggest making a little extra frosting I found myself seriously scraping the bowl trying to get enough to cover the last one.

Things I did wrong:

• Baking of the cupcakes nothing. Other then being super lazy and whiny which prompted the husband to do the prep work.
• I messed up my first batch of ganache. The husband walked in while I was making it and just looked at me in shock because he had no understanding of what I was doing. I've had him make me ganache before when I was busy and I was in no way shape or form making it in any sort of rational fashion. Off to the store for more heavy cream. The fact that he only got me a small thing of heavy cream is something HE did wrong as we all know I mess up a lot of stuff.
• I almost messed up the second batch of ganache because the toddler was being super cute and my cream boiled over almost scalded and the smell of burnt cream on the burner was awful and permeated the house. Yay!
• Nothing else. I did not mess anything else up. I am proud. Well I did make the 11 year old unwrap all the Reese's but I'm pretty sure she stole like 8 in the process and child labor is never wrong.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes:
(makes 12-18 cupcakes depending on how much you fill the liners)

1 stick unsalted butter - room temperature
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate - chopped
1/2 cup Dutch-processed baking cocoa powder
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup sour cream

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pan with baking cup liners.
2. In a medium heatproof bowl, combine butter, chocolate, and cocoa. Set bowl over saucepan containing barely simmering water; heat mixture until butter and chocolate are melted and whisk until smooth and combined. Set aside and cool until just warm to the touch.
3. In a small bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder; set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, mix eggs; add sugar, vanilla, and salt until fully incorporated. Add cooled chocolate mixture and mix until combined. Add half of flour mixture to chocolate mixture and mix until combined; mix in sour cream until combined. Add remaining flour mixture to chocolate mixture and mix until batter is combined.
5. Divide the batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of cupcakes comes out clean.
6. Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on wire rack. Cool to room temperature before icing.

Peanut Butter Frosting:

1 cup confectioners' sugar (plus some more on stand-by I added almost another cup after I added the heavy cream to get the frosting stiff enough for piping)
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature (if using salted butter omit kosher salt)
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract.
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

1. Cream together peanut butter and butter.
2. Once thoroughly mixed add vanilla and kosher salt.
3. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar mix thoroughly.
4. Add heavy cream let mix for 3 minutes to help get it nice and light.
5. If unhappy with consistency of frosting add additional powdered sugar until reaches preferred consistency.

Chocolate Ganache:

1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces (1 cup) bittersweet chocolate. I used Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate chips. If using a bar chop bar, you don't want any large pieces

1. Slowly heat cream to a slow bowl in saucepan.
2. Place chocolate in a large heat-proof bowl.
3. Pour cream over chocolate.
4. Let sit for 3 minutes.
5. Slowly stir together until all the chocolate is mixed together.

For help with ganache I would normally link to Martha Stewart's ganache 101 but her website is currently down.

Optional toppings:

Chocolate sprinkles
Reese's cups, chopped, halved, whole etc.

To put them all together take cooled cupcakes and dip into cooled ganache and roll sides in chocolate sprinkles. Pipe buttercream using Wilton1M tip. Drizzle with ganache and top with Reese's. Enjoy!