chocolate peanut butter cupcakes :: dessert recipe

last weekend was "raRa's" birthday.  "the monster" calls grandma "raRa" in case you didn't know.  anyway, after dinner friday night, we decided to pick a recipe out of my cupcake cookbook.  when it came time to taste-test, i felt the following recipe was good, but a little dry...

what you need:

• 4 tbsp butter, softened
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 2/3 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk

•  1/4 cup cream cheese
• 2 tbsp butter, softened
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar

what you do:

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees (f)
2. beat together butter, sugar & peanut butter
3. gradually beat in the eggs then add the vanilla extract
4. sift in the flout & baking powder, then fold them into the mixture, alternating with the milk
5. spoon into paper liners
6. bake for 25 mins

for the icing:

1. beat together cream cheese & butter until smooth
2. sift in conf sugar and beat until well mixed
3. spread on top of cupcake

for the second batch i started thinking about how to fix the dryness with something that tastes good with peanut butter.  the answer was simple... chocolate!  the easy fix below made this recipe absolutely delicious.  the cupcakes ended up tasting like a soft peanut butter cookie with a gooey chocolate middle dipped in cheesecake ... amazing.

spoon half the batter into the paper liners, then place about 1/2 tsp of chocolate (i used hershey's chocolate syrup).  carefully spoon the remaining batter into the liners so that the chocolate is completely enclosed.  bake as before.