Day 256 – Chubby Hubby Cupcakes

I scream, you scream, we all scream for…cupcakes?  Absolutely!  But this time.  Ice cream cupcakes.  Or, more accurately, cupcakes that are ice cream inspired!  Chubby Hubby Cupcakes (recipe below from Annie’s Eats).

    

The cupcakes are moist and fairly dense. They have a sweet vanilla flavor. Almost muffin-esque.

The frosting is fluffy and smooth. Very easy to pipe. It has a sweet, peanut butter flavor. Not as aggressively peanut butter as some, but it’s definitely the star.

The ganache is thick and hardens really quickly. It’s smooth and tastes like something between dark and semisweet chocolate.

    

The flavors are extremely tasty separately, but together they don’t really flow. There’s nothing tying them together. The frosting and the cupcake would flow really nicely together, and the crunch on the inside is a nice surprise. I want the ganache to be a gooey, soft chocolate, instead of hard, like a truffle, on the inside. But again. Yummy flavors. I just want them to flow together a little better.

Scoring Sheet:

• Cupcake Taste: 4

• Frosting Taste: 4

• Overall Taste: 3.5

• Appearance: 4
• Ease of Making: 3.5
• TOTAL: 19

RECIPE

Chubby Hubby Cupcakes (recipe from Annie’s Eats)

Cupcakes:
3 cups cake flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups sugar
1 cups malted milk powder
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1¼ cups buttermilk, at room temperature

Chocolate Filling:
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups coarsely chopped pretzels

Peanut Butter Frosting:
3 sticks (1½ cups) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup creamy peanut butter
4½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
Pinch of coarse salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 tbsp. heavy cream

Garnish: 
Mini pretzels drizzled with melted chocolate

For directions visit Annie’s Eats.

*Tomorrow: Sweet Peach Tea Cupcakes*