Cuppycakes for Tuesday

3/6/12:  Yellow Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Haven't shared much of my cooking with you all lately, but I'm still here! I've been cooking and baking almost every day each week and trying out some new recipes every now and then. Two of the "newbie" recipes I gave a go as of late were Yellow Cupcakes from Cook's Illustrated and Peanut Butter Frosting from the Bake-Off Flunkie blog. Boy, that sounds like a yummy duo, eh?

It may sound strange to some, but I like to bake a dessert and have that as the sole dish for evening supper every once in awhile. My family always has lunch as the main meal of the day, so we can get by with dessert-for-supper with no problem. So for yesterday's supper, I made these cupcakes on the spur of the moment. Yeah, I would have liked to plan supper in advance but the days got away from me!

Here's how they turned out yesterday:

For Christmas I received the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook (which I think weighs more than two bibles put together!), and this cupcake recipe is one of many I've tried so far from the book. 

So what do I think of the "cake" part of this cupcake? 

I don't know if I baked them for too long or what, but they were a bit dry. The batter was a thick one so it was difficult to evenly fill the cupcake liners, which led to some baking faster than others. So right now I am on the fence about them. 

So what do I think of the frosting?

I wanted to have the family's opinion on this one because I wanted to give feedback to the recipe creator. Here's the feedback:

Papa: OK. Isn't a peanut butter fan.

Sibling 1: Very good.

Sibling 2: Very good.

Sibling 3: YUMMY!

Sibling 4: OK.

Me: Good, but a bit too sweet for me. Would add more butter. 

All and all, it looks like it is a keeper, even though I may not be a huge fan. I'm a frosting fuss budget, especially as of late. I've been making more cooked frostings than buttercreams (like this one), and it is hard to go back. 

Thanks, Tiffany, for sharing the recipe on your blog! Frostings are one of my favorite things to make so I'm glad to add another one to my file.