My best friend Dee just turned dirty thirty. We'll be drowning ourselves in a 25 cent martini celebration/pity party at Commander's Palace tomorrow, but today, we eat cake! Generally I'm not much of a baker, however in his honor, I managed to put together some pretty tasty cupcakes using store-bought frosting and mix. I prepared the dark chocolate cake mix and filled the cups, then topped each one with a combination of peanut butter and chocolate chips, along with a pretzel. I sort-of expected all that jazz to sink in and it didn't, so next time I'll chop up the pretzels and stir them into the batter with the chips. For the frosting, I combined a large container of pre-made vanilla with about a quarter cup of creamy peanut butter. FAIL ALERT: I ran out of frosting halfway through, so half our friends had to suck it up and eat dry cupcakes. Wah wahhhh. Let's go ahead and double that frosting next time. I did put what little I had into a Ziplock bag with a hole cut in the corner, piped it onto the cupcakes in a swirl pattern and then topped it off with a pretzel.

My husband ate three... so I'm thinking they turned out alright. Hell, at least they look good (half of them).