June 25, 2009

The Cupcake Challenge: Mini Chocolate Brownie with Peanut Butter Frosting

chocolate brownie mini cupcakes with peanut butter frosting4

For this installment of the Cupcake Challenge I decided to make Mini Chocolate brownie cupcakes with Peanut Butter frosting. I've been meaning to make these for ages. The soft rich centre of the brownie matched with the salty crunchy peanut butter heaven on top is too much to resist.

chocolate brownie mini cupcakes with peanut butter frosting2

When I first thought of making these, I thought Daz would wolf them down before they even got a chance to cool. When I whipped up a batch of my frosting and asked him to taste test it I was totally thrown when his reaction to the frosting was....."ewwww...that's hideous!" Self confidence deflated to non-existent. I knew he didn't like peanuts.....but hideous?.....who calls peanut butter frosting hideous? I decided to power on, I had faith in the finished product.

chocolate brownie mini cupcakes with peanut butter frosting3

I frosted all 4 dozen of my mini cupcakes, keeping Daz in mind I left about 10 unfrosted. I didn't want him to get to work and feel totally left out, so at least he could chow down on the plain version. When I saw him again that night, I asked him how it went, I at lesat knew everyone would love the cute wilton cupcake liners!

wilton mini cupcake liners

To my surprise I was told that they were a huge success! Yay team me! Then I probed more, "were there any cupcakes left"...."no, but the frosted ones were left till last".....hmmmm I was curious, knowing my Daz.....he wouldn't leave something for him till last......"Did you have any?"....."Yeah, I had about 4 of the frosted ones, they were really good!". AHHHHHHHHHH HAAAAA! So they're not hideous! He ate his words....literally! His excuse I hear you ask? The frosting on its own tasted out of place, but coupled with the soft centred cupcakes it tasted amazing. See I told you! So here is the recipe......remember, don't let your partner taste test anything until its finished!

Chocolate Brownies

Makes approx 48 mini cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

170 g unsalted butter
200 g dark chocolate
1 cup Castor sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 large eggs
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Line tray with cupcake liners
3. In a bain-marie, melt butter and chocolate together, stirring until smooth.

chocolate and butter

4. Remove from heat and allow to come to room temperature. This is very important. If it is not cool enough when you add the egg they will cook rather than mix into the batter.

melted chocolate for brownies

5. Using a spatula stir in sugar and vanilla, continue to stir until sugar has dissolved.
6. Stir in eggs, one at a time until thoroughly combined. The batter will become thicker and paler.

brownie batter

7. In a separate bowl, sift together cocoa powder, flour and salt.
8. Combine flour mixture with chocolate mixture and mix with a spatula until combined.

brownie batter 2

9. Divide into cupcake liners evenly

brownie batter into liners

10. To achieve a fudgy centre cook until the cake rinses slightly and the surface no longer look "wet" around 5-6minutes. If you like your brownie more cooked, leave in the oven until it is firm to the touch. 7-8 minutes.

brownie cupcakes in the oven

11. Cool completely and frost

Peanut butter Frosting

Enough to frost 48 mini cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

250 g butter cut into cubes, at room temperature
100 g crunchy peanut butter
2-3 cups of icing sugar

METHOD

1. Using a hand held mixer, beat together butter and peanut butter until fluffy and pale. This will take at least 10 minutes.

2. One cup at a time, add icing sugar beating well between cups (3-4minutes). Add more icing sugar until the require thickness is achieved.

3. Frost cupcakes

chocolate brownie mini cupcakes with peanut butter frosting

8 comments:

Rilsta said...

Your cupcakes look gorgeous! Yay for another successful cupcake challenge! I can't believe you made 48 for Daz's work. I hope they appreciate it!

I will have to try out your recipe. I noticed that you used plain flour & no baking powder - is that right?

Maria@TheGourmetChallenge said...

Hi Rilsta - Yeah thats right. They're pretty dense and fudgy. They dont fluff up like a typical cupcake, they are more like brownies. They taste best when eaten on the following day to baking.

Arwen from Hoglet K said...

It's great that Daz had to eat his words! It must have been terrible watching his reaction to the taste test. Good on you for persevering - sounds like they turned out perfectly in the end.

Stephcookie said...

Love the sound of the fudgy insides! That's so funny that he ate his own words! I get worse from my family...they'll sit there and tell me what's wrong with whatever I baked but they'll still eat the whole thing up!

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

What a rich combination of flavours! I like the use of a fudgey brownie recipe in the base!

Agnes said...

Yum! I reckon you can never go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter. I think I may need cupcake tips from you - my dept at work is having a cupcake bake-off in August and naturally I want to win! ;)

Maria@TheGourmetChallenge said...

Hi Arwen - Yeah he ate his words at the same time as eating the cupcakes! lol

Hi Stephcookie - Thats what my brother is like! He'll criticize it while taking a massive chunk out of whatever it is he's eating. If its so bad......PUT IT DOWN!

Hi Lorraine - The fudge brownie recipe was my whole inspiration for this cupcake! So yummy. i wish I hadn't sent them to work with Daz, that way I could have eaten them all myself! But then I would have turned into a fudge brownie!

Hi Agnes - OOOOOHHHHH! Cupcake Challenge! Thats so awesome! If you need any help let me know. I'll give you any of my very limited knowledge and hopefully it will help!

Anita said...

These cupcakes look great! Great Cupcake Challenge again :P