Today is a special occassion– Paul’s classmate Caleb is having his thesis show. He’s the first of the grads to exhibit. Hooray! Since it was also his birthday a couple of days ago (and he neglected to tell anyone!) I wanted to make some cupcakes for the opening.

But not just any cupcakes. Mini chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.

Yeah, there’s that much left over. Next time I’d better cut the recipe in half. I’ve been known to eat a spoonful of peanut butter from time to time –actually, almost daily right now. It’s the protein, I say! My sister Amy used to do it and it drove my dad crazy. I guess now I will have to eat spoonfuls of frosting until it’s gone. There’s a stick of butter in there. And a cup of sugar. Recipe, you ask?

 I started off with this one, but of course modified. Remember, I only ended up needing about half of this (although I see no problem with leftovers!). Here is what I used:

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter–buy the good brand
1 cup confectioner’s sugar– the original called for double that, but I found it sweet enough already
3 tbsp -ish heavy cream

Get everything (but the heavy cream) to room temp– if you let the butter sit  on the stove while you bake the cupcakes, it’ll be perfect. Blend the butter and peanut butter together with an electric mixer. Gradually add confectioner’s sugar. Be sure to taste it every time you add the sugar– you know, to be sure it’s just sweet enough. Drizzle a bit of heavy cream in as needed.

Soooo good. I think this would make a fantastic filling for cupcakes too– maybe added to already whipped cream. That was the original plan but I thought 50 small cupcakes was better than 20 or so large ones, for the crowd and all.

I’m going to go get fat now. Oh, maybe I’ll do the dishes first.