A Match Made in Heaven

There are not many people I know that don't enjoy the combination of peanut butter and chocolate. Most of my family, including myself have a weakness for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. In fact I was surprised that the Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes did not win by a landslide a few weeks back. Because of this I made 2 batches this week to spread the love (sorry you did not get any grandma). That is right people, 48 little piles of heaven right under my roof made in a little over 3 hours and I only ate one, to taste test of course. For this week I flew solo in the kitchen, I knew looking at the directions that it was going to take some time, more than a 5 year old can stand on one task.  I had to use some elbow grease on this one, my hand held mixer was screaming for help after I committed to making a double batch in one VERY FULL mixing bowl. I had a big, manly cheerleader in the living room reminding me to take a deep breath and stay calm when I thought I was going to fail at folding the 12 egg whites I had whipped to medium soft peaks into the 36 ounces of melted semisweet chocolate chips, 3 sticks of butter, cream, vanilla, 12 egg yolks, sugar, flour and 24 regular size Reese's cups!!! I mean what is a measly dozen egg whites anyway. After about 10 minutes of under my breath cursing and sighing I finally found success. I started baking the 48 cupcakes into their shiny gold liners and then I remembered I still needed to make the icing. By then it was 8 pm, I am getting tired all over again just thinking about it. I made the icing, filled my pastry bag and found the icing was way to thick to be piped out to top the cupcakes. It was all put back into the bowl and after being thinned out, back in the bag the icing went. Then I discovered that my mini peanut butter cups had begun to melt together. I quickly salvaged what I could from the packages and crossed my fingers there would be enough to top each and every tiny cake. The cupcake goddesses were working against me. After a complete cooling off period, both for the cupcakes and me...I iced and topped each with their mini cup! SUCCESS, take that cupcake goddesses! The cupcake was saved as my reward for cleaning up my baking mess. I am not kidding when I say the cake melted in my mouth. The peanut butter icing gave it that Reese's finish. After a long night I packaged up the cupcakes and they were ready to make their way to my dad's house, day care and the local fire house of my choosing. Delivery was late today after spending some time at a friend's house celebrating her little boy's birthday. After all we did need to eat dinner before hitting the road to deliver cupcakes. Abigail had told me earlier that she did not want to deliver cakes because she would rather just eat them. When she found out we were going to make the trip to the fire house she changed her mind. I had originally planned to drop the cupcakes off at the fire house closest to my other deliveries, but that would have meant not sharing the moment with my little girls. I quickly drove home to pick them up and we made our way to the first fire house with their lights on, bay open and fire truck in eye shot!  We walked around a few minutes trying to confirm which doorbell to ring. Bell located, pushed and answered. We were quickly invited in to say hello to the guys. 

I explained that all of you decided they should get the cupcakes this week. You all should know they send a big thank you. I only wish each of you could have been there to get to play in the fire truck and meet the resident ducks the way the girls did. Tomorrow I begin my week with one of my least favorite activities of the year, a role as a peer reviewer for a quality assurance entity. Three days of telling other people they are either doing a great job or they need to do a better job, yuck. On the brighter side I get to end my day taking the girls to their ballet / tap class, much more fun. I will continue to check in and see what special supplies I may need for next week's cupcake. Don't forget to vote for your favorite. Until next time...