Peanut Butter Frosting

This is a time of intense dualities.

We feel elated to have one-on-one time with our children all day, and we feel overwhelmed by the responsibility of being parents and teachers. We feel grateful we are safe and comfortable at home, and we grieve for all those who are dying and those who will die.We feel relieved that we have no social obligations, and we feel the absence of our daily social interactions acutely, viscerally.

Here's a recipe and an activity idea that embraces duality. It is a drastic break from my baking ethos (which is - and has always been - baking from scratch). It combines time-saving convenience with a homemade frosting so good it tastes impossibly luxurious given it's simplicity.

So here goes. Take your favorite cake mix and bake some cupcakes. Then have your kids (or your spouse, or a zoom date) help you make this delicious frosting and decorate the cupcakes with sprinkles and love. If you want to get fancy like I did, pipe the frosting in fun designs, using either a pastry bag or simply a plastic bag with a teeny hole cut in the end. If elegant pipe-work coming out of the end of a ziploc bag isn't a gorgeous illustration of dualities.... well then I'll eat my homemade no-sew t-shirt mask.

Peanut Butter Frosting

This is an occasion where commercial peanut butter is the best choice. 
You can make your own confectioners sugar if you have regular sugar and cornstarch. 


10 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature*
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted**
2/3 cup smooth peanut butter (Jiffy brand or similar)

Beat the cream cheese and butter together with a hand-held mixer or by hand (the cream cheese and the butter should be soft enough that you can easily do this with a wooden spoon). Slowly mix in the confectioners' sugar cup by cup. Stir in the peanut butter. Spread on cupcakes, or eat by the spoonful.

*Make sure your butter and cream cheese are soft enough to poke a finger through.
**If your confectioners' sugar is not chunky you don't need to sift it.