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You know what I’m sick of hearing about? Acai berry. Those stupid little berries are in everything! Juice, make up, face creams, wine, the new iPhone 5…everything! I’m pretty sure Acai berry juice is responsible for both Bieber fever and for keeping Magic Johnson alive – it’s just that amazing. But let this post serve as a promise to you, my amazingly good-looking and loyal readers, that I will never make anything with Acai berry in it. And if I do, may I be cursed with a stuffy nose and bad breath for the rest of my life, which ironically can be cured by the Acai berry.

**Shakes fist in the air**  DAMN YOU ACAI BERRY!!

Anyways, I’m still obsessed with cupcakes. I’m not sure when the obsession will end. I’m sure eventually I’ll get back to cookies and bars, but until then I’m enjoying the ride, so I hope you are too. The recipes for the cupcake/filling/frosting all came from an actual book, made of paper and printed with ink. Crazy, right? I also went a little wild at my local bake shop and purchased a few different styles of cupcake liners.

So fancy!

I originally was just going to fill the insides with the chocolate glaze, but I had a lot left over, so I piped some on the tops too. In hindsight, it was a fabulous idea.

I’m starting to branch out a little bit with my 1M tip. This reminded me of those wreaths they sell in Target that look like they’re made out of giant pencil shavings. Delicious, peanut butter pencil shavings…

The picture doesn’t do it justice. The frosting was amazing and the chocolate glaze increased the chocolately-ness factor of the chocolate cake quite nicely. 10 out of 10, people!!!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Filling and Peanut Butter Frosting

Adapted from Cupcakes: Luscious bakeshop favorites from your home kitchen by Shelly Kaldunski
Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:
3 oz semi sweet chocolate, chopped
½ cup plus 3 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 11 pieces
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 ½ tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
¾ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs, at room temperature
¾ cup Rich Chocolate Glaze
Peanut butter frosting

Directions for Cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper or foil liners. Place semi-sweet chocolate and butter in double boiler, stir frequently until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool to room temperature. (I put mine in the fridge because I’m impatient!)

Stir sugar into the chocolate mixture until combined. Stir in vanilla and eggs, one at a time, stirring vigorously until smooth after each addition. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Gently fold the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture; do not overmix.

Divide batter among muffin cups, fill each about ¾ full. Bake until toothpick inserted comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, 22-24 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to wire rack and cool for 1 hour.

Rich Chocolate Glaze

Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp light corn syrup
Pinch salt
8 oz. semi-sweet Dove chocolate, chopped

Directions for Glaze:
In small saucepan combine cream, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Remove pan from heat, add the chocolate and let stand for about 3 minutes. Stir mixture until chocolate is completely melted. Let cool to room temperature. Glaze can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Using Bismark tip fill each cupcake with glaze. Or using a paring knife, cut a 1 ½ round piece about 1 inch deep from the center of each cupcake and fill each hollow with about 1 tablespoon warm chocolate glaze and chill until the filling is set, about 10 minutes. Additional glaze can be used on top of the cupcakes. Even after topping the cupcakes I still had some left over, so I froze it and scooped it out later to make chocolate dipped truffles. The glaze isn’t as stiff as a normal ganache, but the truffles will set up well if refrigerated.

Peanut Butter Frosting

Ingredients:
6 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
¾ cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted (you might need more, depending on the consistency you choose)
¾ cup smooth peanut butter (I used Skippy Natural)
¼ cup heavy cream

Directions for Frosting:
In a bowl, beat the butter, sugar, peanut butter and cream together until smooth and combined for about 2 minutes, or until light and fluffy. I used my stand mixer and paddle attachment.

Frost each cupcake and serve! The cupcakes can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days; bring to room temperature before serving.

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