Sunday, March 26, 2017

Over-The-Top Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella/Peanut-Butter Frosting and Peanut-Butter Mini-Cupcakes with Rich Chocolate Frosting!


If you're looking for a real showstopper dessert, you'll love these luscious cupcakes!  They are so much fun and could be made in a variety of flavor combinations.

I was truly intrigued and inspired recently when I saw a photo of similar cupcakes topped with mini-cupcakes.  It was on the Google+ Community for Chocolate Lovers!! They don't usually post the recipe for the photos...it's just generally photos of very tempting chocolate desserts.  The mini-cupcakes were tilted, and I couldn't decide if I liked them leaning or would like them better perfectly centered.  Well, after making them for my daughter's birthday last week, I decided that I, indeed, like them best tilted.

I chose my moist, dense chocolate cupcakes and frosted them with my Nutella/peanut-butter frosting.  Then, I topped them with my tender, mini-peanut-butter cupcakes which I frosted with my rich chocolate frosting.  I, then, drizzled the assembled cupcakes with jarred, unsalted caramel sauce (salted caramel sauce is too much, as there is salt in the Nutella/peanut-butter frosting).  I should have drizzled more for the photo; as by the time I photoed the cupcake, the drizzle had soaked into it.

     It's Like Having a Little...
                                                  Bonus On Top!
             
Approximately 34 assembled cupcakes, plus approximately 14 extra mini-peanut-butter cupcakes and 8 standard-sized peanut-butter cupcakes

Ingredients
The Chocolate Cupcakes

The Peanut-Butter Mini-Cupcakes

The Nutella/Peanut-Butter Frosting For The Chocolate Cupcakes

The Rich Chocolate Frosting For The Peanut- Butter Cupcakes

Optional Topping
  • Unsalted Caramel Sauce (jarred)

Supplies
  • Approximately 42 standard-sized cupcake papers
  • Approximately 48 mini-cupcake papers
  • Standard-sized cupcake pans
  • Mini-sized cupcake pans

Directions

(See the above links for oven temperatures and more in-depth instructions.)
  1. Line 34 standard-sized cupcake pans with paper cups.  Fill each paper approximately 2/3 full with the chocolate cupcake batter.  Bake about 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a couple of cupcakes comes out clean and the cupcakes spring back when lightly touched with the finger.
  2. Line 48 mini-cupcake-sized cupcake pans with paper cups.   Fill each paper approximately 1/2 full with the peanut-butter cupcake batter. You will have enough batter for approximately 8 more standard-sized cupcakes.  Bake about 15 minutes, testing for doneness using the same method as for the chocolate cupcakes.
  3. Allow the cupcakes to cool approximately 10 minutes in the pans.  Then, transfer to cooling racks and allow to completely cool. 
  4. After the cupcakes are completely cooled, remove the papers from 34 of the peanut-butter mini-cupcakes (leave the papers on the chocolate cupcakes).  Frost the cupcakes with a decorator tip.  (I used an Ateco #4 star pastry tip to create the swirl pattern on the chocolate cupcakes and the star pattern on the peanut-butter cupcakes.)
  5. Place the mini-cupcakes, slightly tilted, on top of the standard-sized cupcakes.  (Refer to the above photo.)
  6. Drizzle the assembled cupcakes with the caramel sauce right before you serve.  (Optional.) 
  7. Store in tightly covered plastic containers that allow room for the height of the assembled cupcakes, without crushing them.  Or, store the standard-sized cupcakes and the mini-cupcakes separately and assemble right before you serve them.  These will keep in the refrigerator up to one week, and they also freeze well.  Bring to room temperature before you serve.
Have fun with these over-the-top cupcakes!  You'll enjoy watching how people choose to eat them.  Generally, they just pluck the mini-cupcake and pop it into their mouth...then follow by eating the standard-sized cupcake!  Any way they choose to eat them, you'll know they love them!

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