By Lara Kimbrell

Going to Sam’s Club with a chocolate fiend can be a dangerous business. It always starts out the same… we went in to get diapers. Diapers. Only diapers. Instead of heading straight for the check out line, we began meandering around.

Now I love chocolate as much as the next hormonal gal. Maybe more. My guitar man loves it even more. Now the problem with a discount club is that everything is in bulk. So when he began doing his bird dog pointing routine at the peanut butter cups, I knew we were in trouble. We bought the box. It was huge. So we did our best to deal with it. One cup at a time.

Peanut butter cups rank among my favorite ways to eat chocolate, and when I sawBakerella’s recipe for peanut butter cup cake, I knew I had to try it. Because we were in the country with 3 active boys, I decided to make cup cakes. They’re more portable. So I gathered my supplies and sent the troops out to play.

So I didn’t add cookies, baby cereal, or raw sugar. Sue me!

To make the cup cakes, you need 3 large eggs, a boxed devil’s food cake mix, 1 cup of buttermilk, ½ cup of vegetable oil, and about 2 cups of chopped peanut butter cups.

Now as I was putting away my items from the local Brookshire’s, I noticed that the sacker didn’t put my buttermilk in the sack. So I measured out a cup of skim milk and added a teaspoon of white vinegar. Let is sit on the counter for 5 minutes, and you have a perfectly good substitute for buttermilk. I checked my receipt, and they did charge me for it. Grrr…

Dump the cake mix in a bowl. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl. Stir the eggs, buttermilk, and oil into the mix. Use a mixer to beat on low until combined, then beat on medium for about 2 minutes. Gently fold in the chopped peanut butter cups.

Pour into cup cake liners and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Warning: the toothpick test doesn’t really work with these cup cakes because of the chunks of peanut butter cup inside. The cup cakes should spring back when you press on the tops when they are done.

While they are cooling, get the ganache ingredients: 8 ounces milk chocolate chips or candy bars, 1 cup heavy cream, ½ cup of creamy peanut butter.

Heat the cream until it just begins to boil. Break up the chocolate if it is in big pieces and add it to the cream. Stir until the chocolate is melted and combined. Add the peanut butter and stir until combined.

Take each cup cake and hold it by the liner. Dip the top of the cup cake into the icing while it is still warm. Sorry ’bout the glaring white hands. I’m really not that pale. Honest!

Garnish with more pieces of chopped peanut butter cup. Refrigerate for 1 hour to set the frosting. Serve with lots of cold milk!

Follow this link to see Bakerella’s recipe and gorgeous cake version. She really is a whiz at fixing up a box of cake mix!

The cup cakes were a hit with everyone. You should keep these babies in the refrigerator if they last that long. I made 18 big cupcakes. If you only fill each liner 2/3 full of batter, I am sure you could get 24 cupcakes.

I did end up having a good bit of extra icing, and it was so good, I couldn’t bear to see it go to waste.

So I grabbed a box of Ritz crackers, peanut butter, powdered sugar, and butter knife and got to work. I mixed about 2/3 cup of peanut butter with 2-3 tablespoons of powdered sugar and beat the heck out of it. The powdered sugar makes plain peanut butter taste like the kind in the filling of the peanut butter cups.

Then I spread it onto Ritz crackers and made little sandwiches out of them.

Next I dipped each one in the chocolate icing and placed it on to a sheet of waxed paper. Finally, I put them in the fridge to set. Talk about yummy! Oh my gosh! The slight saltiness from the crackers paired with the chocolate and peanut butter was just right. Waste not, want not.

So I challenge you to make something yummy with chocolate today. It’s good for the soul!

Keep lovin’ and keep cookin’!

SNS Contributor Lara Kimbrell is a modern, old-fashioned girl who loves to cook for her family and is known in certain circles as “Physicschick”.  You can read more of her work at her website, http://ifyouloveitfeedit.com/

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