That title is just a fancy way of saying peanut butter cupcakes. If you love peanut butter, these are the cupcakes for you. This is a peanut butter cake with some chocolate thrown into the middle and a peanut butter frosting. Think inside out peanut butter cup. If you aren't from the South or you're apparently uneducated on various forms of candy/fudge (like me) and have never heard of penuche, it's a peanut fudge candy (yes, I had to Wikipedia it because I had zero clue...and I still don't know how to pronounce it).

This penuche frosting is good...it tastes like peanut butter caramel fudge. Winner in my book! Although, next time I would pair the cupcake with a chocolate frosting for a better contrast in flavors. I would do this cake with chocolate frosting and this frosting with a chocolate cake. Hmmm...so many options...must start baking. The cake is nice and moist and has a tender crumb. It must have been good because I ate an entire cupcake while I was taking pictures. Literally--the camera was in my right hand and the cupcake was being devoured while in my left hand. I guess that's one good thing about having a crappy point and shoot camera! 

Jen of Sweet Morris picked this recipe for this week's Project Pastry Queen, and it came along at a great time. I was just thinking that I needed to post another cupcake recipe on here. My recipe is for high altitude, so check out Jen's blog for the regular recipe if you live pretty much anywhere else in the world. Ah, the joys of living at a mile high. The recipe says it makes 12 cupcakes, but I got 18 out of it. It also calls for a bittersweet chocolate bar cut into pieces, but I was all out so I used semisweet chocolate chips. I also added an extra 1/2 cup of powdered sugar to my frosting because I wanted it to be thicker. These changes are noted in my recipe below. Also, check out Project Pastry Queen to see everyone else's take on these delicious peanut butter cupcakes.  

Peanut Butter Cupcakes at High Altitude
Makes 18 cupcakes
Print this recipe

For the Cake:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 cup + 2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
1 cup bittersweeet or semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 18 muffin cups with liners and set aside. Using a mixer with the paddle attachment (or a hand mixer), combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Mix until incorporated. Add the butter, peanut butter, milk, and vanilla and mix until combined. Add in vanilla and eggs one at a time until well incorporated. Fill the cupcake liners 1/3 of the way with the batter. Add in a few chocolate chips (about 10-12) and top with more batter until the cups are 2/3 filled. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 10 minutes and cool at least 5 additional minutes before frosting

For the Frosting:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup milk
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter, peanut butter, milk, brown sugar, and salt. Stir to combine, bring to a low boil, and let it boil for 1.5 minutes without stirring. Remove from heat and let sit for 30 minutes (but not longer). After 30 minutes, stir in the vanilla and powdered sugar, pour into a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and mix on medium speed until smooth and creamy. This will take a couple of minutes. At this point, I put the frosting in a piping bag and placed it in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes until it was cool. This helped it to stiffen so it would keep its shape when I piped it on the cupcakes.