A 70's Party & Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Saturday was Jesse's 26th birthday! In celebration, Bec planned a surprise 70's party for him. With our costumes on and the fondue warm, the birthday boy walked into a groovy evening!

The Birthday Boy and his pup, Rocko

Me & Adam

Me & Bec

Bec & Jesse

The Girls

Fondue

On a quest to find a unique and delcious cupcake recipe for Jesse, I came across this blog and found the following recipe. These were sooooo good!!!! I highly recommend you try them! They were a hit at the party. You'd never know boxed cake mix is involved...



Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Cupcakes

Pretzel Crust:

1/2 cup butter, softened
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 2/3 cups crushed pretzels
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Batter:

1 box devil's food cake mix
1 small box Jell-O instant devil's food pudding mix
8 oz sour cream
1 cup applesauce
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 bag peanut butter chips
36 mini Reese's peanut butter cups, unwrapped

Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting:

2 sticks butter, softened
4 cups confectioners sugar
1 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
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Prepare muffin tin/tins with cupcake liners and lightly spray with cooking spray.

Crush pretzels in a food processor (or put in a heavy duty plastic bag and crush with a mallot). You want them fine so they go in the cupcake liners in an even layer. In a medium bowl, mix together the crust ingredients.
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Drop a small scoop of the crust mix into the bottom of each cup. Use a small shot glass to pack them down to a firm crust.
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Bake for 5-8 minutes until very slightly brown. Let cool for a couple of minutes before you add the batter.
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In a large bowl combine all the batter ingredients except the PB chips and PB cups. Mix until well combined and all the lumps are gone. Stir in the PB chips.
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Drop a small spoonful of batter onto each pretzel crust. Then press a PB cup into the batter. The batter will be a barrier so when the PB cup melts it won't leak through the crust.
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Cover the PB cups with batter. Bake at 350 degress for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (make sure you don't hit a PB cup or chip while performing this test).
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To make the frosting, cream the softened butter with a mixer. Gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar, cocoa and vanilla. Add milk until frosting reaches spreading consistency. (You can play around with the amounts of ingredients. I started off with less sugar and cocoa than what it calls for and just kept adding until it got to the taste I like.)
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When the cupcakes are completely cooled, frost liberally and sprinkle with some sea salt.
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Thanks to Bec for the photos and I got the cupcake toppers at TJ Maxx!

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