Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

If you are not an experienced baker, a cake mix from a box is an obvious choice especially when you have to whip something up in a jiffy. When the box mixes go on sale I pick one up just to have on hand as well as cure the chocolate craving from the chocoholic that lives with me.

Making frosting from scratch is the best way to go though. It doesn't take a lot of time and with some basic pantry and refrigerator ingredients you have elevated the box mix to come up with a scrumptious cake or cupcakes.


I will attempt to make these cupcakes look bakery worthy by piping the the frosting. This will either be a total disaster or I may just have a wee bit of luck. However, this will take all the patience I have as baking and decorating skills do not come easy to me.

Peanut Butter Frosting:

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/3 cup heavy cream

1. Place the confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work.
2. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

They say you can elevate a box mix to taste more like the bakery by adding an extra egg, use milk instead of water and melted butter in place of the oil. Has anyone tried this?