Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes, thank you Cox, Cookies and Cake

Words cannot express how excited I was when I saw that Cox, Cookies and Cake were releasing a cookbook (loser....) after sharing (!) one of their beef cake cupcakes (a butch hazelnut praline cake with praline icing, topped with a bulging bicep = AMAZING) with my boyfriend when we went to the Brewer Street shop.

The book is beautiful with a quilted cover and black pages (very sexy) with cupcake, bar and cookie recipes but sadly no beef cake recipe.

After promising my sister a million times to make her cake in return for her help I got excited and said I'd make her a batch of cupcakes, as long as they came from my new book.....she chose the chocolate peanut butter cupcakes to share with a friend who needed a bit of a cheer up.

Screw being a vegan, these cakes were amazing - the sponge is denser than others I've made, just like the cake we bought in the bakery and I really like that, they're not dry with it though or heavy.  The peanut butter made them almost savoury and the chocolate gave them a sweeter edge.  I topped them with the chocolate peanuts mum bought that didn't get put into my mouth....

recip from Cox, Cookies and Cake book www.coxcookiesandcake.com/
Cakes (I made 15 but the recipe is for 12)
175g unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
150g light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
240ml buttermilk
125ml sour cream
2 tbsp espresso coffee
2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter
250g plain flour
100g cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Peanut butter frosting
150g icing sugar
110g smooth peanut butter
50g unsalted butter, softened
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp double cream

1) Preheat oven to 180 (fan),
2) Cream the butter with both sugars until light and fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time.  Add the vanilla extract and beat well.
3) In another bowl whisk together buttermilk, sour cream, coffee and peanut butter (luckily I have lots of beaters left over from all the electric whisks I've broken)
4) In a third bowl sift together flour, baking powder and cocoa.
5) With the whisk on a low speed add 1/3 of the liquid mixture, followed by 1/3 of the flour to the sugar and butter but only whisk until just mixed.  Repeat until all the ingredients are in, then fold with a spatula to make sure it is mixed well.
6) Fill the cases 2/3 full and bake 20-25 minutes.

To make the frosting beat together all ingredients without the cream, until well mixed, then beat in the double cream until the mixture is light and smooth.