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Thursday, December 27, 2012

Individual Chocolate Peanut Butter Trifles

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Try as I might, I am not a cupcake connoisseur. St. Louis is actually home to a rather famous cupcake blogger and I'm starting to think it's time I beg her to teach me (some of) her ways. What you see in the picture above is clearly not a cupcake, but it started out as one!
I was set on making peanut butter filled cupcakes with chocolate ganache for my friend Maggie's birthday. Usually I run into cupcake problems when I try to pipe the frosting on, so I figured a thin layer of ganache was well-within my capabilities!
What I didn't account for was the cupcake part failing me. A few of the reviews on Food Network's site mentioned the cupcakes overflowing, so I was careful not to overfill them--making 24 vs. the 18 cupcakes the recipe supposedly yielded. As it turns out, my attempts were futile. The cupcakes overflowed and I was left with a giant mess on my hands!
Rather than panic, I remembered how last time I had a cake fail, I turned it into banana cake balls. This time, I went for trifles instead of cake balls. I took the cheater route, using instant pudding and cool whip because I was short on time. While I'd like to try these with all homemade ingredients, these are just as good as is. Not wanting to mess with homemade cake? Cake mix would work just as well! These received rave reviews from friends, who claimed they were better than any cupcakes would've been! Cupcake fail for the win!
One Year Ago: Zucchini Parmesan (one of my favorite meals!!)
Two Years Ago: Baked Potato Soup

Individual Chocolate Peanut Butter Trifles

Ingredients:
-chocolate cake (9 x 13 pan or 24 cupcakes-worth; I used this recipe), crumbled
-1 (5 oz.) box chocolate pudding, prepared per package instructions
-2 (8 oz) containers cool whip
-1 cup creamy peanut butter
-1 cup powdered sugar
-2 tbsp milk
-8 oz cream cheese
-Reese's peanut butter cups, chopped, for topping
-20 plastic punch cups, for assembly

 Directions:
1. Beat the cream cheese with the peanut butter until creamy. Beat in the powdered sugar and milk until well combined. Fold in 1 cup of cool whip.
2. Add cake crumbles to the bottom of each punch cup. Top with peanut butter mousse followed by a layer of chocolate pudding.
3. Add a second layer of cake crumbles. Finish with a layer of cool whip and sprinkle with chopped peanut butter cups. Refrigerate until ready to serve. (Note: Can be made up to 24 hours ahead of time)