Bite-sized peanut butter-rich cupcakes topped with a smooth milk-chocolate buttercream frosting. If you follow me on Instagram (you should!) you know that Zach and I procured a live Christmas tree for our house this weekend. And, as excited as I was to get it, I now understand completely why there are people out there who opt for artificial trees instead of live ones. There are pine needles.  Everywhere.  Everywhere. Even though our tree looks pretty and green on the outside, I'm convinced it's absolutely rotten on the inside.  Since we've moved it into the house, I've already swept up approximately ten pounds of pine needles.  It doesn't help that my dog thinks the stand is a pine-fresh personal water bowl and keeps trying to drink from it, knocking an additional thousand needles to the ground each time. I'm terrified to string up the lights around it because if you just look at it too hard, the needles start flurrying to the floor, I can't imagine what will happen when I try to touch it. So for now, the tree stays bare (though I'm sure the dead-needles situation is only going to get worse the longer I wait), and I've been procrastinating in the best way I know how: with cupcakes.