Peanut Butter Frosting

Kathleen's Peanut Butter Icing
from Barefoot Contessa at Home

1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

The Barefoot Contessa icing is the one I really like.  But the one everyone tasted at Shannen's birthday was on from allrecipes.com, as follows:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3-4 tablespoons of milk
2 cups powdered sugar
(adjust milk as necessary to desired consistency)

Best Chocolate Buttercream for Cupcakes

Adapted from www.browneyedbaker.com

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature ( probably used salted and it was fine)
2 1/2 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
8 oz. Ghiradelli semisweet chocolate (look for the gold wrapper), melted and cooled slightly
(original recipe calls for 4 oz semi- or bittersweet chocolate.  That wasn't enough for me.  I also tried a Lindt 60% and used 6 oz.  Also not enough.  My favorite was the Ghiradelli 8 oz.)

Whip together butter and powdered sugar. Then add vanilla and melted chocolate.

You can store this in the fridge, but let it come to room temperature and give it a quick whip before using.

I like this not just for cupcakes.  We put it on double fudge chocolate chip brownies.  It was amazing.