Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes a while back but haven't had time to post them until now! There are only 2 days of school left then no more work until next school year! Expect some more posts of delicious baked goods over the summer!


I had been dreaming about peanut butter cupcakes and finally got around to making them! I love peanut butter and chocolate but I do not like chocolate cake. Almost every peanut butter cup cupcake that I have ever seen has chocolate cake and peanut butter icing. So I decided to take matters into my own hands!

Unfortunately I didn't make up my own recipe for the cupcakes. I used this recipe from All Recipes only I think I added a little more peanut butter and I used evaporated milk because I never have milk on hand. Keep an eye out though because I am making a peanut butter cake later this week and plan on changing it up a little so maybe you will see an original Peanut Butter Cake Recipe soon!

So after baking the cupcakes I cored the middle and filled with chocolate ganache. Honestly I can't remember what I did for it some proportion of good quality chocolate and milk or cream and maybe butter depending on the mood I was in when I made them. This is why I should update my blog right after I make something instead of months later. The important part is that I filled a condiment squirt bottle with the ganache and filled the cored out centers with ganache.


Then came the hard decision. Chocolate icing would make the most sense but I couldn't deny the fabulousness of peanut butter icing. So I decided I didn't need to pick and would swirl them together.

I essentially used this recipe from All Recipes for the peanut butter icing but I do remember adding more sugar and PB until I got a good consistency. But I didn't measure it so I have no idea how much! And for the chocolate I used the chocolate buttercream on the back of the Hershey Coco powder box.Then I used a spatula and put the chocolate on one side of the bag and the peanut butter on the other. I thoroughly researched this on lots of other blogs and websites to figure out how best to do the swirl. Basically just scrape one of the icings along one side of the bag and the other icing along the other side. Then make sure you squeeze evenly on both sides so that you get equal amounts of both icings.

They turned out so cute! Almost too cute to eat but not quite!

Wasting Time on Ebay

Well I'm not going to lie, instead of blogging I've been spending all my online time on ebay. I've been bidding on juicers. I thought I was going to win one, but I always get outbid by people bidding way more than I can at the last minute! It is so frustrating, I want a juicer so bad but I really don't have enough money for one right now.

Anyways Saturday some of my relatives that I had just visited in Ohio were at my grandparents house, which is about an hour and a half from us. So we ate some lunch and then headed up to see them! I had some Amy's Soup
This is the first time I tried the Chunky Vegetable and it was delicious as expected, however the Chunky Tomato Bisque is still my favorite (and I think always will be!)
And some egg salad on a slice of soft oatmeal toast!
Once we got up to my grandparents house we decided to head to downtown Martinsburg to check out the local chocolate store, DeFluris. My grandparents buy us chocolate crosses from here every Easter and they are delicious, but we have never actually been in the store. They had lots and lots of delicious looking truffles

I got a Dark Chocolate Raspberry, Peach Brandy, Vermont Maple, Fisher Ridge Wine, a Cape Cod ("white chocolate, tart cranberries and a hint of orange create a wonderful refreshing truffle") to bring home with me! We then walked around downtown Martinsburg for a little, they were having a car show and the streets were blocked off and they had live music and vendors set up everywhere. We walked down to the train station so Braden could look at the old roundhouse because he loves trains! Eventually we made our way back to the cars so we could head back where my grandma had dinner waiting for us! I was planning on saving all my chocolate for later but once we were in the car everyone else decided to try one of their truffles so I pulled out one too. It was the dark chocolate raspberry one.

DELICIOUS! Nothing can compare to a good truffle! While we were in the store you can look through a window into the back where they make the chocolate and I was thinking how fun it would be to work somewhere like that. Can someone please find me a chocolate making job?

When we got back my grandma had a huge dinner for us. I didn't take a picture because we were crammed in, in the dining room and once I sat down I wasn't able to get back up to get the camera! But we had a pot roast cooked with carrots and potatoes (I love carrots cooked with pot roasts, yummm!), tons of fresh fruit and veggies, homemade applesauce (my grandma makes the best!), mac and cheese, and rolls. For dessert she made an angel food cake that is topped with a mixture of coolwhip, cream cheese, and pineapple (she also sometimes makes it with mandarin oranges instead.) Its the perfect light summery cake and was great to finish off that heavy meal with.

For fathers day we headed to Red Lobster after church for my mom's b-day/ fathers day/ my mom got $100 in Red Lobster gift cards from her students on the last day of school lunch. I couldn't decided what I wanted, I knew I wanted coconut shrimp but wasn't really feeling any of the other things they paired it with for the combo things. Then I realized I could order the appetizer version and get another appetizer for the same price as the combos and get the same or possibly more food out of the deal! So I ordered some crab and lobster stuffed mushrooms and my coconut shrimp that comes with the best pina colada type sauce ever!

I ate half of both the mushrooms and the shrimp and ate the other half for dinner! When we got home from lunch I had another truffle, the peach brandy one! Just as good as the others

And my dad got this like homemade twinkie type of thing that had been dipped in chocolate, so of course I tried a piece of that.

It was so nice outside yesterday I grabbed my dog and went for a run. I am so sick of this hot weather, if it would stay in the 70s all summer I would be much happier! I guess I need to move to Maine! I also got my dad to hang up my last shelf in my room and put up my headboard, so then I spent most of the rest of the day cleaning my room some more! It is getting there, I think maybe it will be clean by the time I start student teaching in the fall hahaha.

Today I woke up around 11:30 and skipped breakfast and went straight to lunch at around 12:30 ( I seem to be doing that a lot lately, I am clearly not a morning person like many other food bloggers out there!) I made a grilled cheese quesadilla, with garlic and herb cheddar, goat cheese, campari tomatoes, and spinach on a spinach wrap. It was delicious and the only thing that could have made it better was basil.
I am growing basil, but its not quite ready to eat yet. I planted my basil and parsley a couple weeks ago and its coming along nicely. I've never grown anything from seeds before so I'm pretty excited (I've planted the basil that you buy at the grocery store with the roots and everything and it actually works about 50% of the time haha)

My mom said she was grilling hamburgers for dinner, however she is currently sleeping on the couch so I'm not so sure about that. Either way I'm not having hamburgers so I guess I should go figure out what I'm going to eat for dinner, hope everyone has a great day!

Disney Obsession

Today has been another busy busy day!!!! And I don't have a lot of pictures of food from today so here are some pictures I took last night! Kylin and I watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua and it was super super cute! I think I'm going to have to buy it hahah! Anyways I've been eating lots of unpictured Easter candy but I managed to take a picture of an easter bunny kit kat that I had last night because it was just so cute!!!!I tried to put it on Baby Cat so she looked like she had ears!
She was not impressed!!!
Anyways today was wonderful and I slept in until 11:30!!! So no breakfast for me! After showering and getting dressed I went straight to my leftover tuna pasta for lunch!
Then I went with Maggie to go see 17 Again. Why oh why is Zac Efron so gorgeous??? Besides Zac being awesome the movie was also very cute but I really wanted them to sing at least once. There were so many moments when Zac or Matthew Perry could have broken out into song and it would have been totally appropriate. And there was a point where Zac said we're in this together and I just busted out laughing. Also in other non related disney excitement. Last night Maggie and I decided to tweet at Mitchel Musso (from Hannah Montana) and see who would reply back to first. And he totally replied back to me but not her! I was pretty excited. Yes I promise you I am not 12 years old. Also everyone should follow me on twitter if you don't already.

Anyways after the movie I came back to my house real quick to grab stuff for class. I didn't have anything really to pack for dinner so I grabbed a piece of foccacia bread and brought it with me to 2 hour 40 min class number one.
I was hungry and ate it at the break during psyc. So in between classes I ran down to 7-11 and got a smoked turkey and jack sandwich and then ate it while talking with my group real fast before class. It was okay, not great but not awful for something premade at 7-11. So then in 2 hour and 40 min class number 2 we did our group presentation. I'm so glad thats over with- I feel like the next 2 weeks of the semester are pretty much downhill from here! So yay!

Also in class today I was told that I should bring cookies or something to class since I am the baker of the group. So maybe this weekend I will attempt some cookie making which should be quite fun since I've packed up and taken home all my kitchen stuff. But my kitchen aid is still here and we have 2 cookie sheets that were not mine so I think it can work!

Busy Easter!

Yesterday was busy busy so I didn't have time to post anything! Yesterday I woke up and had a piece of the most delicious bread ever- Pepperidge Farms Cranberry Orange Bread topped with almond butter of course.
And of course I got an easter basket filled to the brim with chocolate and candy!


Then we headed to church where my pastor gave an awesome Easter service about hope. After church we headed home where we set the table and stuff while we waited for my grandparents to arrive. Once they came we put a couple things in the oven and then my dad opened his birthday presents! He got some stuff from bass pro shop, and lowes, and the his big present was an ipod! So of course after dinner we had to teach him how to use itunes.Then we had Easter dinner!!! Here is the pretty flowers that my mom picked to make a centerpiece.
And here is the fruit salad my grandma brought- I love pineapple!!!!!!!!!!! It is my favorite fruit!
The deviled eggs that I made
The place settings! My grandparents brought chocolate crosses from this chocolate store up in Martinsburg. And then the wrapped thing are our "easter eggs" which had a russel stover egg, a dove egg, and $20!

Here is the lemon mold that my mom made!
And more deviled eggs!
And my dad cutting the Honey Baked Ham
And homemade rolls from my mom!
And the best ever potatoes from my grandma! They are cheesy and delicious!
Here is the whole table!
From the other side haha

The ham, which I didn't eat bc I'm not a fan of ham
My plate!
And for dessert my grandma always makes the most delicious white chocolate cake ever! It is so good and it has the best white chocolate frosting! And it would not be complete without the cross because Easter is not all about the food it is about Jesus's sacrifice to us and how he did not stay dead on the cross but rose on Easter!
And my slice of cake!
After dessert I drove back to Richmond where I finished up everything for my tutoring and then cleaned my room a little bit because someone is coming today to look at it and see if she wants to move in when I leave!

So this morning I woke up super early because I had to meet with my teacher before tutoring to tell her how it was going. I snacked on a coconut cream pie larabar- my second favorite (key lime is definitely the first place one)
So my teacher did not show up early to meet with me and ended up not showing up until 45 minutes later, which was 15 min after our class was suppose to start and when we were suppose to go get the kids for tutoring. She had popped a tire and had to take a cab the rest of the way to the school. We were able to meet during the break though so that was good. Now that I'm all caught up I'm off to find some lunch and catch up on the blog world and then do some homework before my class at 4!

Blah Day!

Today has been such a blah day!!!! Last night I discovered that Hulu has movies! So I went through all of them and made a list of ones I wanted to watch and then watched a movie and ended up falling asleep around 2ish lol. Also Kylin gave me this last night that she found when she was cleaning her room!
So I snacked on one of the cookies and the peppermint stick last night! So this morning I slept until noon then woke up and caught up on blogs and facebook! Then I took a shower and made lunch. I used my new spinach wraps topped with some goat cheese brie, sprouts, tomatoes, and some sliced asiago. I warmed it up in the microwave and then attempted to wrap it, however it wouldn't stay unless I was holding it shut because it was so full. So I took a picture of it unwrapped so you could see everything inside of it!

Then I basically sat around working on random homework and not doing much of anything. Before I knew it it was time for my ethics class. We discuessed Nickle and Dimed (horrible book I do not recomend it). We got out of class early so I stopped by the UPS store to return my verizon box since we have now changed it all into Megan's name since I won't be here next semester! Then I came home and made dinner!! I had some bunny butts! (annie's mac and cheese haha) It was the alfredo kind which I had never had before and it was really good! We didn't have any milk and I'm all out of plain yogurt so instead I used some sour cream and a tiny bit of mayo. I also added some chopped tomatos which gave it some liquid too. Then I topped it with a slice of the asiago cheese that I got from trader joes yesterday! It turned out much better then I was expecting and I think next time I make this I'm going to try it with plain yogurt. It says it on the box but I usually always just use milk, but I really liked it with the sour cream and I think the yogurt would be really good too.
Then for dessert I snacked on a bit of this awesome chocolate!
I've been working a little on my take home test for my tutoring class and I'm almost done with that so I think I will definitly finish it tonight. In a bit I'm heading over to Jonathan and Lars's apartment for another movie night! yay two weeks in a row! I'm glad that we are getting movie night going again this semester even if it is almost over! Then tomorrow I'm probably going to be packing and loading up my car most of the day so I can head straight home after my classes! I've got all my winter clothes and books that I don't need in the trunk and in my room I'm packing away all my dvds and other school stuff. Everything is packed either in scholastic boxes or Whole Foods bags (and now also some Trader Joes). Then I can unload everything at home and use the boxes and bags again to pack up more stuff! Hopefully when the end of the month comes I'll have most everything except my furtniture moved home so there won't be too much stuff to move!