Peanut butter obsession continued... including banana loaf cake

So the obsession continues! Peanut Butter Cup cakes... the richest cupcake I've ever tasted and I have a very high threshold for sugar. These cupcakes are the updated and variation on the Mr Hershey cupcakes that I blogged about last year. They are a moist chocolate sponge topped with a gooey peanut butter icing. I used around equal parts of icing sugar to peanut butter. Ina Garten used this method for her peanut butter muffins. I added about three or four tablespoons of whole milk to smooth the icing out. Then topped with miniature Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  The first time I made them I used crunchy peanut butter in the cake mix.  They smelled absolutely divine as they baked, however was a hindrance to the cake once baked as it seemed to dry it out.  

That being said, they were beautiful. Rich but delicious. Definitely not for the faint hearted! My friend Gemma said that they tasted and had texture like a Snickers bar. I can definitely tell what she means. 

These are the Peanut Butter Cup cakes I made for my amazing sister. She got a new job after a long time trying to better herself. Karma finally was on her side! Aside from the fact that she deserved a break and was perfect for the role.

I made a banana loaf cake today Mary Berry style and look what I did... piled on the peanut butter! I think I need to be sponsored by the stuff!

 

Finally, here's a topical picture for this blog post.  I bought this last year in Selfridge's in Birmingham.  It was like I'd struck gold, I just had to have it!

Awards

I have been nominated for two awards! Wowzers is all I can say! Thank you very much to Jo at what do you make of my cake? for nominating me. 

 

Rules for both the awards are

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award and link back to them.

2. Share five random facts about yourself

3. Spread the joy by nominating other bloggers

4. Convey the blogger about the nomination.

So here are the five facts about me

1. My first name is Heather.

2. I own 133 pieces of make up (a large proportion dominated by my eye shadow palettes containing 59 colours in total) and 11 make up brushes. Make up is a massive love of my life as you can probably tell!

3. I've always wished that I could sing and act for as long as I can remember. I think I'd be on stage if I could.

4. I've finally come to terms with truly being who I am. If anyone doesn't particularly like this or me, I won't dwell, because I'll never compromise who I am for anybody else. As Dr Seuss said: “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind”.

5. I took ballet lessons for six years as a teenager. I loved it and still have my pointe shoes as a souvenir. 

The people I'm passing the awards onto are

1. Needlecraft Corner

2. Laura Loves Cake

3. The More Than Occasional Baker

4. Culinary Conquests

5. Butter Hearts Sugar

I hope people reading this check out the above bloggers.  Their blogs are a delight to read and are baking and crafting some amazing things!

 

Peanut Butter Obsession

My love affair with peanut butter has been the longest relationship of my life. Longer than my relationship with my boyfriend! However, it's not always been plain sailing... we've had some tough times. My mum made some peanut butter cookies when I was around six or seven years old and they were a delight to eat. I subsequently ate too many of them and they made me sick after a day out at Bradford's Museum of Film and TV. I don't think I touched peanut butter as a sweet treat for around twelve years after that. Thankfully I got over this and we made up because it's now my favourite treat.

I decided to bake peanut butter cookies Paul Hollywood style, but with a slight twist. You can find the recipe here.

I substituted the peanuts for chocolate chips and used crunchy peanut butter instead of smooth. It made up for my decision to omit the peanuts in favour of chocolate. The orange zest was a stealth ingredient though, as I couldn't taste it that much, but could smell it as they were baking. They aren't the prettiest cookies out there, but that's the appeal. They're what I'd call a 'homely bake' and delicious dunked in a cold glass of milk.