Lion Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

 

Last week was my boyfriend's birthday :)  So for his birthday, I decided to make him some lion cupcakes :) 

I got the idea for decorating them from this video, which gave really good detailed instructions on how to do it.  The face was hand shaped out of a softened caramel candy with details piped in with black icing.  I used a Wilton's grass tip to make the 'hair' for the lion's mane.  

Since his favourite chocolate is Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, I decided to make Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes.  They are just as they sound, a chocolate cupcake with a Peanut Butter Cup inside!     

These cupcakes were moist, similar to the cake from the cupcake tower, probably because they both contain sour cream.

The peanut butter cup makes them very rich, but delicious :)

For the icing, I made a peanut butter frosting, which is like an American buttercream but with some of the butter replaced with peanut butter!  It had a nice flavour without being overwhelmingly peanut buttery.

Since I was just making 6 cupcakes, I got a new 6 cup muffin tray.  I could have just used the full 12 cup tray and filled the extras with water, but with this smaller size, I could do my baking in the convection toaster oven :)  I tend to do as much baking as I can in the toaster oven, so I can conserve energy.  I've done cakes, pies and cookies in it and they have all turned out well.  If what I'm making fits in the toaster oven, I'll bake it in there :)


Recipe:
Adapted from Cooks Illustrated

Yield: 6 cupcakes

Cupcake:
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa
6 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 large egg, at room temperature
6 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sour cream
6 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

Peanut Butter Frosting:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup of cream peanut butter
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp heavy cream

Decoration:
12 soft caramel candies
black icing

1.  To make the cupcakes: preheat the oven (toaster oven in my case) to 350 degrees F. Line a 6-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.

2.  Place butter, chocolate and cocoa powder in a medium heatproof bowl.  Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until butter and chocolate are melted and mixture is smooth.

3.  In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder.

4.  Whisk the eggs in a medium bowl to combine, then add the sugar, vanilla and salt and continue whisking until fully incorporated. Add the cooled chocolate mixture to the bowl and whisk to combine.

5.  Add one-third of the flour mixture into the bowl and whisk gently to combine. Add the sour cream and whisk to combine. Finally, add the the rest of the flour mixture into the bowl and whisk until everything is well combined.

7. Place a spoonful of batter into each cupcake liner. Place a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup on top of the batter. Cover the peanut butter cups with remaining batter, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes. Remove the pan to a wire rack and let the cupcakes cool for a few minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.

8.  Beat butter and peanut butter until creamy. Slowly add in powdered sugar. Mix until combined and add the heavy cream. Mix until frosting is fluffy.

6. Pipe cooled cupcakes with the peanut butter frosting and decorate as shown in video link above.