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This post is about cupcakes…chocolate peanut butter cupcakes to be exact. I brought these cupcakes along with a dozen coconut cupcakes with cream cheese frosting to one of my church's outreaches a while back. Baking for people is my passion, and I find so much fulfillment in being able to put smiles on people's faces and a good memory in their hearts and minds. To jazz these cupcakes up, I used chocolate transfer sheet designs and cut mini Easter eggs out of them for the top of the cupcakes.

This chocolate cupcake recipe can be found at Chockylit's Cupcake Bakeshop, which is probably one of my favorite blogs out there. She absolutely blows me away with the great combinations she comes up with and all of the creativity that flows out of each posting. The particular recipe is one of the best chocolate cupcake recipes out there, and I have used it countless times. Once you try it you will be a convert too!

I decided to fill the cupcakes with leftover chocolate ganache I had from another day and think it worked out pretty well. Chocolate ganache is simply a combo of 50% heavy cream to 50% chocolate. You just heat your cream until is it about to boil and then pour it over your chopped chocolate (my favorite is bittersweet). Then let it sit for a couple minutes before you whisk it till it's thoroughly combined. You can also add a tablespoon of butter and corn syrup to the mixture when it's still hot to give it a better flavor and more shine. If you are going to use it for a filling you need to let it cool completely until it is a thick spoonable consistency. Then just add your ganache to a pastry bag, fitted with a medium size pastry tip, and insert your tip into the cupcake and squeeze the filling out until you feel your cupcake expanding and the ganache comes up to the top.

I tried a new frosting this time -peanut butter frosting! This frosting from Ina Garten's show, Barefoot Contessa, got rave reviews online at the Food Network, so I thought I would give it a try. I was definitely not disappointed! This is a delicious and extremely easy frosting to make and makes a wonderful pairing with chocolate cupcakes. I piped on the frosting using a pastry bag and a #8 tip.

I found these great new chocolate transfer sheet designs at Fancy Flours.

Here are my instructions on how to make chocolate transfer sheet cutouts:

Place your chocolate transfer sheet on a flat surface that can be transported, like a cookie sheet. Have the shiny part facing down at the table, so that the cocoa butter design is on top.

Depending on what size of chocolate transfer paper you want to cover, melt enough chocolate (any kind is fine) to cover the sheet. You want the chocolate to be about 1/8 inch thick. You can either melt the chocolate in a glass bowl over a pot of simmering water (don't let the water touch the bowl) or you can melt it in the microwave on 30 second intervals. Once it is melted, pour the chocolate over the transfer sheet and spread with an offset spatula.

Once the chocolate is evenly spread, place the sheet in the refrigerator until the chocolate is dull and not shiny anymore. You want the chocolate to be just set. If the chocolate is completely hard then just leave the sheet at room temperature until it softens slightly. Once the chocolate is ready, push the desired cookie cutter into it and push down hard. If the piece don't come off easily, then once you have punched out all of your shapes place the sheet back into the refrigerator until the chocolate is completely set and then break pieces apart. These pieces can be made ahead of time and left in the refrigerator until you are ready to use. If you want even more intricate instructions on chocolate transfer sheets you can go to Fancy Flours and they have a instruction sheet about them. So once your cupcakes are ready, pipe on your frosting with a large star tip in a swirl design or whatever you prefer, and then place the chocolate transfer design on top. If you have anymore questions feel free to leave me a comment and I will get back to you!

These kind of adornments are very impressive looking to people and yet pretty easy to make in my opinion, so I would highly recommend that you try it out!

Well, here are some more fun photos I took of the cupcakes. Thanks for looking!