Sydney and I love to watch Cupcake Wars together (a baking competition show). She always picks teams for each of us to cheer for and we both watch with anticipation of who will win, drooling over each creation. We watched an episode yesterday and I've been craving cupcakes since then. Because it was raining today and I've exhausted all the indoor activities through the winter, I decided that during Miles' nap time we would have our own "cupcake wars"....which just meant making cupcakes :) We chose to make chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate ganache and caramel filling topped with peanut butter frosting. They are INCREDIBLE :) The texture of the cake left a little to be desired because I only had bread flour, but the frosting was to.die.for. Next time I'll leave out the caramel because these were SO rich it was just not necessary. Here is our adventures in baking....

my little baker

everything is ready!

yummmmmmmm

 

we are tired and ready to eat!

And the recipes:

Cupcakes and Ganache

Caramel sauce

Peanut Butter Frosting (adjusted from my sister's friend, Felicia's recipe)
*this was for a half batch of cupcakes
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup shortening (I used Crisco)
1- 1 1/4 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
2-4 cups powdered sugar
Milk as needed
-cream butter, shortening, and peanut butter together until smooth. Add sugar 1 cup at a time until blended. Add milk to create correct texture and more peanut butter to enrich flavor