Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream

Anytime someone asks me to make cupcakes, I automatically start thinking of ideas of flavors and what I'm going to do. I have a passion for making cupcakes. I love combining flavors when I bake, it's the fun part. Well, also decorating them as well! 

These cupcakes were made for my brother's wedding celebration. So of course they had to be fancy. Since I love cupcakes, I didn't really want to make cupcakes that I couldn't have. So like most of things I make, these are gluten and dairy free. They aren't sugar free at all though, but sometimes it's okay to splurge a little bit. 

Many gluten free baked goods just don't turn out right. From being to dry, or to crumbly it's hard to find the right balance. Baking gluten free over the past year I have had some sucuseess, but also many more failures as well.  A lot of the times when you first start out baking gluten free, it's best to use already pre-made mixes. These cupcakes I did use a box mix, so it isn't my recipe from scratch. I made these pretty last minute and I didn't want to experiment with a recipe from scratch. Also, for any newbies out there who are just starting to bake gluten free. This is a great recipe. I promise it is super easy! And delicious! 

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream

Ingredients: 

1 Box of Betty Crocker Gluten Free Cake Mix in Chocolate

1 Box Chocolate Fudge Pudding(Make sure it doesn't contain dairy)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit  

1. Prepare cake mix exactly as directed on the box.

2. Add in the pudding mix to the cake batter(Do not make pudding) 

3. Fill cupcakes liners 3/4 of the way. Gluten free batter doesn't rise as much as regular cupcakes, so you can use more. 

4. Bake for 18-25 min. Check with a toothpick for doneness. 

Peanut Butter Buttercream

Powdered sugar- Use a whole 1 lb. bag

1 Cup Shortening

1 tsp of butter flavoring

1 Tbsp Of Pure Vanilla Extract 

1 Jar of Natural Peanut Butter

Water

Cream shortening, butter flavor, and vanilla until smooth. Add in powdered sugar a cup at a time. Once all the sugar is added, scoop in peanut butter. Add in water to get a smooth consistency. 

I decorated the cupcakes with a dipped chocolate strawberry. But you can just add icing and enjoy. Or decorate them however you want to. For the chocolate, I used Enjoy Life's Mini Chips. They are a dairy free chocolate. 

Cheers!