Touchdown Cupcakes!

To be perfectly honest with you, I don't make a lot of things from scratch. There are my few tried and true recipes that I will go all out for, but cakes and cupcakes are definitely not one of those. I've tried a lot of fully homemade cakes and I've tried a lot of boxed cakes. You know what my favorite is? It's Betty Crocker's Super Moist Triple Chocolate Fudge. I think it's the best. That's my personal opinion anyway.

So clearly, the first step to making these Superbowl Cupcakes, is to make some cupcakes. Let them cool. Then, use food coloring to color your frosting. I just had store-bought frosting because unless I'm only making cupcakes, I have a lot going on and don't really have the time or energy to make mine from scratch, but feel free if that's your thing. Pipe the frosting on to look like grass.

To make the goalposts, melt some almond bark and color it yellow. Put it in a squirt bottle. I was going to try and make goalposts out of 4 pretzel sticks, but that didn't really work out as planned so I thought of something new. I took the yellow almond bark and piped some yellow goal posts on some wax paper. When they're hard, push the goal post into the cupcake. If you can find them (I got mine from Party City), then add a sugar football at the base of the goal post for a finished look.

If you can't find them, but really love the look of the football, I bet it wouldn't be too hard to make some using chocolate and almond bark. You just need to melt them, put them in squirt bottles and make them on some wax paper. Let them harden and then peel them off.

I actually had some extra batter after I made my 18 regular-sized cupcakes (because that's how many sugar footballs I had), so I made mini cupcakes. Then, I used the leftover frosting on them. And to finish them off, I put the extra goal posts on top.

They're easy. They taste great. And they're absolutely adorable.

Chocolate Ganache Peanut Butter Cupcakes

I made these for my family and they were AMAZING!! The next time I make them, I might make mini cupcakes instead of full sized ones because they are kind of rich, but they're still some of the best cupcakes I've ever had.

Ingredients:
CUPCAKE:
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup baing cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup strong brewed coffee, room temperature (if you're not a big fan of coffee flavored things, like myself, don't let this scare you off, you can barely taste it.)
1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
FILLING:
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 to 4 tablespoons 2% milk
GANACHE:
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tablespoons milk, or as needed
2 cups confectioners' sugar

1. In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Whisk the buttermilk, coffee, oil, eggs and vanilla until blended; add to the dry ingredients until combined. (Batter will be very thing.) Fill paper-lined muffin cups 2/3 full.

2. Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. (If you make mini cupcakes, cook those for 10 minutes.) Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
3. In a small bowl, cream the peanut butter, butter, confectioners' sugar and enough milk to achieve piping consistency. Cut a small hole in the corner of a pastry or plastic bag; insert a small round tip. Fill with peanut butter filling. Insert tip into the top center of each cupcake; pipe about 1 tablespoon filling into each.

4. For the frosting, place chocolate chips in a small bowl. In a small saucepan, bring cream just to a bowl. Pour over chocolate; whisk until smooth. Dip the top of each cupcake into ganache; place on wire racks to set.

5. Place the butter and peanut butter into a medium bowl, a beat with an electric mixer. Gradually mix in sugar, and when it starts to get thick, incorporate milk 1 tablespoon at a time until all of the sugar is mixed in and the frosting is thick and spreadable. Beat for at least 3 minutes for it to get good and fluffy.
6. Place frosting in a pastry or plastic bag with large star tip; pipe onto each cupcake. Top with leftover ganache (if you have any).