Chocolate & Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cupcakes

Okay, so I know that I keep telling you all that I am not a great baker, and that is still totally true. I literally had to force myself to go make these cupcakes the night before my daughters birthday because I was soooo not looking forward to all the steps. However, once I actually got my lazy behind into the kitchen it was a total snap and I felt a little ridiculous for waiting until the last minute! The first thing was gathering up my supplies. Because this recipe does have a lot of steps and we are not a sweets family I had to make a special run to the store for a lot of these things. I chose to get pre made items for most all of it, but if you want to whip up your own…more power to you!

The first step is to mix up a box of chocolate cake and fill up your cupcake liners with 1-2 tablespoons of batter. Bake them until the centers are done and then let them cool all the way!  While they are cooling you can mix up your ice cream.  If you want to skip this step just pick up some peanut butter flavored ice cream at the store.  Normally I am all about the easy way out, but I don’t like the way the fake peanut butter ice cream tastes so I took the extra couple of minutes (really only like 3 minutes) and whipped up my own!  I used about half a carton of vanilla ice cream and mixed in about a cup of creamy peanut butter.  Then I stirred and stirred and stirred some more.  Just like that peanut butter ice cream!! Spread the ice cream on top of your cupcakes up to the top of your liners and then stick those bad boys back in the freezer!

About 15-20 minutes before you are ready to serve your cupcakes pull them out of the freezer and get ready to top them off.  Start with a small layer of the “magic shell” topping, then a big helping of whipped cream and finally a drizzle of caramel!  I used the same salted caramel as in this recipe because I already had it in my fridge! By the time you are done topping all your cupcakes they ice cream and cake part will be defrosted enough that they are ready to serve!  I will warn you now that whipped cream does NOT maintain it’s shape or consistency in the freezer so don’t make my mistake and try to stick them in there and expect them to come out the same!  Other than that I recommend building up your willpower because these cupcakes are SO good that you will want to eat them all at once!  Even my hubby who hates sweets went back that night and ate a few more!  He said they taste like one of those frozen snickers ice cream bars and I have to say he is exactly right!  Go ahead, make a batch and as always let me know how they turn out!!!