Easy Cupcake Fun

As a rule, one of the best was to distract myself from stress is to bake something (this does not apply to obligatory holiday baking). The key is to find a baked good that is chocolate and not too challenging. Last week I stumbled up on the perfect (easy and impressive) recipe in my new cupcake book:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Ingredients: 3 eggs, vegetable oil (see cake mix package for specific amount), 1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter, 1 package of Duncan Hines Devil's Food Cake Mix, 1 container of creamy vanilla frosting, (optional) Reese's Pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place paper liners in muffin cups.
2. Prepare, bake and cool cupcakes following package directions for basic recipe. (Be sure to only fill muffin cups 3/4 full, otherwise you get jumbo cupcakes.)
3. Combine vanilla frosting and peanut butter in medium bowl. Stir until smooth. Frost cupcakes (and add Reese's Pieces if desired). This was the biggest challenge. As I spread the icing, some of the cupcakes started to tear apart (this was particularly true of the mutant jumbo cupcakes). Maybe a different chocolate cake mix would work better, or maybe I need one of those frosting bags. (Clearly I am new to the pastry making world - I have no idea what the plastic icing bag things are called or where I could find them.)

The Final Result

Even though the recipe was ridiculously easy, I got tons of complements on these cupcakes, especially the frosting.