Giant Reese's cups!

I'm sure everyone has that one person at their job. That one intimidating boss that you avoid. That one that when they show up at your desk, you know something is horribly terribly wrong. For me, that's the controller. He's really not that scary as a person. He's a big, kinda goofy looking, most-likely-gay, corn-fed Midwestern boy with a vampire laugh. He's hilarious and out-going at happy hours, but he is a hard ass at the office. Of course, he's the controller. It's to be expected. But man, oh man, he intimidates me. And today was his birthday, and I was hired to make his cupcakes. Cue me shaking in my ballet flats.

Now, if you've seen pictures of most of my other cakes and cupcakes, they're all pretty girly. They're pink and have sprinkles (even if it's bacon) that coordinate with their cute cupcake liners. So my first thought was how I was going to make cupcakes look manly (even if the birthday boy isn't a typical manly man). Once again, Mrs. ESPN (she really should just be my business partner!) stepped in with a brilliant idea: chocolate peanut butter cupcakes. My coworker's birthday cake was such a big hit, I figured cupcake sized confections would go over really well. So I used the same recipe and.... voila!

I wanted to whip the ganache and fill the cupcakes with it (like the filling I used for the wedding cake), but I think the peanut butter and corn syrup may have worked to prevent the ganache from getting fluffy. It got partway there, but not enough that I was confident it wouldn't make the cake soggy. So I drizzled it on top, instead. Dan said they were just like giant Reese's cups. It's a good thing I bought manly gold foil cups to put them in. Everyone said they were delish, but I haven't heard from the birthday boy yet. I suppose that would be the only thing I'd want to see him at my desk for :)