What We Ate: {Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes}

School started for Mike today. So it couldn't be more fitting to do a post about chocolate.

I am not a cupcake fan. Gasp! I know, right? Never really been much of one, that I can remember. {Unless its those cream cheese filled ones that my mom used to make....love those.} But my boss {now former} loves cupcakes. And he loves the sweet combination of chocolate and peanut butter. So Friday was his last day and I thought I would make him a sweet treat to show him my appreciation. {I bake a lot for people at work, so this wasn't too out of the ordinary.}

And these particular cupcakes are out of this world. And that's coming from someone who doesn't even like cupcakes. And I heard from two different people that these were the best cupcakes that they have ever had. Do you know what this means? It means you must make them.

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

The Stuff:
1 devil's food cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups chopped peanut butter cups {plus more for garnishing}
8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

The Doing:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put muffin liners in muffin pan {recipe makes 24}.

In a large bowl, beat cake mix, eggs, buttermilk and vegetable oil on low for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium-high and beat for 2 minutes. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl. Fold in 2 cups of the chopped peanut butter cups.

Pour batter into liners and bake at 350 degrees for 17-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool.

Place semi-sweet chocolate chips in medium bowl. Bring cream just to a boil and then pour over chocolate. Whisk until chocolate melts. Add peanut butter and whisk until smooth. Let cool for 10 minutes.

This is when your preference comes in. This is how I did it. I dipped the top of each cupcake in the ganache mixture and then put them on a cookie sheet and put them in the fridge for about 30 minutes. {Leaving the ganache just sitting out....don't put it in the fridge!} Then I redipped each cupcake in the ganache again and immediately topped with some chopped peanut butter cups and put them back in the fridge. Ganache can be quite runny, so putting the cupcakes in the fridge can help them set up quicker. Feel free to let your ganache cool for longer than 10 minutes. The longer it cools, the stiffer it becomes, so if you wanted to just frost them with a knife, you would have to have the ganache cool for a while. Either way, get that ganache on there because thats what puts these over the top.