January 23, 2009

Peace O'Cake Cupcakes

I read this story in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal on Sunday:
Karen Lane tells me she and her partners Shelagh Aycock and Jan Tankersley are preparing to open Peace O'Cake Cupcakes - a specialty cupcake store.

The tasty confections shop will feature five daily scrumptious flavors that will be sold from Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. until the little morsels run out.

The store, located at 3412 34th St., opens Jan. 27. Call 771-CAKE. Now that's an enterprising idea.
I really thought that cupcakes were on the way out, popularity-wise, having maxed out in the last few years. Oh, but no. I can't turn around without reading about some cutesy new cupcake bakery, cupcake cookbook, or cupcake recipe contest.

I decided to become part of the problem. I made my usual dark chocolate cupcake recipe but with a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup baked inside, then topped that with peanut butter buttercream frosting and another Reese's Cup. The FDA & CDC will probably shut my kitchen down for putting that much peanut butter in anything during this time of crisis. Honestly, I wish I had put more peanut butter in the frosting, so deal with that!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Last night I took a jar of Peanut Butter & Co. Mighty Maple to my granddad and told him it was so wonderful that he had to try it. He looked at the label and said that when he was young, he came home from school and made his own peanut butter, mixed in some maple syrup, and ate a bowl of that before going out to do chores. And these were actual chores like splitting logs. When I was young, I came home and mixed peanut butter and chocolate chips and melted that in the microwave and ate a big bowl of that before watching cartoons or Small Wonder or Mr. Belvedere or whatever was on television, whether I liked it or not. So it's fair to say that I set different goals for myself. Sometimes for variation I'd add jelly to the PB and chocolate chips. I was also extremely fond of peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwiches for awhile, which is my favorite gross-out story now. Perhaps my love for the peanut butter and maple combination is genetic, but also, my mom fed me toast with peanut butter and maple syrup for breakfast almost every day when I was in elementary school. Just opening the jar of Mighty Maple and smelling the peanut/maple combination makes me feel like a child again.

3 comments:

kristina said...

I totally have similar memories of chowing down on a big helping of pb and chocolate as a kid. Have you tried PB&Co's Bee's Knees PB? It's awesome as well.

Kimberly said...

Yum, Kristina! I would melt chocolate chips and stir peanut butter into it. I like Bee's Knees, though not as much as Mighty Maple.

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