I partied at 1am... with these delicious chocolate chip and peanut butter cupcakes!

I love birthdays, whether it’s mine (preferred) or anyone else’s. I get very excited - the countdown to the day type of excited. I’m basically five-years-old again with my level of excitement, but I figure it is one day of the year that is entirely yours, so enjoy it. Get as much as you can out of it and have fun with family and friends.

So in the spirits of birthdays, a friend recently celebrated his 30^th – big deal and all of that. It was a great reason to bake something delicious (though one doesn’t really need reasons to bake other than satisfying your stomach). I hadn’t baked cupcakes in a long time so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

One of my favourite combos in the food sphere is chocolate and peanut butter. They work so well together. I could probably just melt chocolate and peanut butter together and just eat that straight up. For this particular person, I decided to make chocolate chip cupcakes with a peanut butter frosting.

This cupcake recipe is extremely good; the cupcake turns out moist and soft. The added in chocolate chips give it an even better texture and surprise taste. When it comes out of the oven and you bite into the cupcake (it doesn’t even need frosting) it is heavenly.

I cannot express the delight I experienced at 1 am when I took them out of the oven and I just had to try a bite (just to make sure they tasted alright). Yes, 1 am. I had a day off from work for Eid and spent the whole day sleeping on either my bed or the couch. So by midnight I was ready to party in the kitchen.

Without any further stories about me sleeping, here is the recipe for the cupcake.

The cupcake turns out moist and soft.

For the cupcake

Ingredients: (Makes about 18 cupcakes) 

Flour – 1_1/3 cups
Cocoa powder – ¾ cup
Baking powder –1 tsp
Salt –  ½ tsp
Sugar – 1¾ cups
Butter (unsalted) – ¾ cup at room temperature
Eggs – 2 large
Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp
Coffee – 1 cup, hot and strong
Chocolate chips – 1 cup

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F (176 C).  Line your muffin tins.  Spray the liners with some cooking spray.

2. Sift the flour, baking powder, cocoa and salt into a medium bowl.

3. Beat the sugar and butter into a large bowl until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time and beat until well incorporated.  Add in the vanilla and beat it some more.

4. After this, add in half of the flour mixture into the wet mix until it is incorporated. Then add the coffee and beat it again. Add in the rest of the flour mixture.

5. Let the batter stand until it is cooled and slightly thickened.  It will be quite wet, which gives the moist quality.

6. Add in the chocolate chips.

7. Put the batter into the muffin tins (about ¼ cup of batter in each).

8. Place them in the oven for 21-23 minutes. Once cooled – it is time to frost the cupcakes with the following Peanut Butter frosting recipe.

For the frosting

Ingredients:

Softened butter – ½ cup
Creamy peanut butter – 1 cup
Milk – 3 tbsp (more may be needed)
Icing sugar – 2 cups (maybe a bit less, as it can get quite sweet)

Instructions:

1. You can just use a whisk and it will be fine, but if you want life to be easier, use a mixer.

2. Mix the butter and peanut butter until it is nice and smooth.  Then gradually add in the icing sugar till it starts to thicken.  As that starts to happen, add the milk one tablespoon at a time.  Get it to the consistency you like, mix it for a couple of minutes until it is nice and fluffy.

3. Spread and eat.

I cannot express the delight I experienced at 1 am when I took them out of the oven.

All photos: Ayla Iqbal

This post originally appeared here