Make it Monday - cupcakes!

Happy Monday friends! For this week's Make it Monday, I'm sharing a recipe for peanut butter cup cupcakes. I've got to give a shout out to my friend Emily, who shared this recipe with me years ago, but I never actually made it until this past weekend. Boy, was I missing out! These things are awesome and they taste just like a Reese's peanut butter cup!

For the cupcakes you will need:
1 box chocolate cake mix (I used Devil's Food)
2 eggs
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
Water - the amount called for on the cake mix

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners. Prepare cake mix according to package directions, using only 2 eggs, the amount of water on the package, and the peanut butter instead of the oil called for on the box. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full. I used a 1/2 cup scoop and got 21 cupcakes. Bake for 19-23 minutes, until they appear done and the top springs back when touched. Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting you will need:
6 oz. chocolate chips, melted (I used the microwave, but you can use a double boiler as well)
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

Beat all of these ingredients together until smooth and frost away. If the frosting is too soft, a few minutes in the fridge will stiffen it right up. I made a double batch of the frosting so I could really pile it on. I definitely used up more than a single batch, but I had a ton left over. The Hubs enjoyed it magic-shell-style on ice cream. The kids will probably polish it off by dipping animal crackers in it. It's some seriously delish stuff!

I garnished the tops with chopped-up peanut butter cups!

And since it's Monday, I have a new spring cleaning assignment: to clean out the worst closet in the house. This is a week-long project. I plan to spend 15 minutes per day working on my worst closet...which happens to be my very own personal closet. I took some "before" pics this morning, but alas I am simply too mortified to share them with you yet. I did spend 15 minutes working on it, but it has not improved enough for me to feel any better about it. I can actually see a bit of the closet floor, which is a definite improvement, but it's still so bad. And you know I've shown you some pretty embarrassing "before" photos, so this is really, really bad. If you used the full extent of your imaginative powers you probably still could not picture just how horrible it is! And it overwhelms me. But I figure I can do anything for 15 minutes. Just to keep it real - a lot of my closet issues involve being waaaay behind on laundry for myself. So, I'm not counting laundry catch-up in my 15 minutes per day. I will be spending additional time on laundry. I'm optimistic, though. I think 15 minutes a day plus some laundry will leave me with a spiffy closet by week's end. Oh happy day!