Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

I made these for Father's Day/Chad's Birthday and they were a hit! Best "from scratch" chocolate cake I've had.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting
Makes: 24 Cupcakes

For the Filling:
2/3 Cup Confectioners' Sugar
1/2 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter
2 Tablespoons Butter
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla

For the Cupcakes:
8 Tablespoons Butter (1 Stick)
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 2/3 Cups All-Purpose Flour
3/4 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Sour Cream
2 Tablespoons Milk
1 1/2 Cups Granulated Sugar
2 Large Eggs

For the Frosting - Peanut Butter Buttercream:
1/2 Cup Butter, Softened
2/3 Cup Peanut Butter
3-4 Cups Powdered Sugar
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1-2 Tablespoons Milk

1. Prepare Filling: In bowl, with mixer on medium speed, mix confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, 2 tablespoons butter, and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla until blended. Shape mixture into 24 balls using heaping measuring teaspoons. (Balls will be sticky and don't need to be perfectly shaped.) Place balls on waxed paper-lined cookie sheet; set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 350*F. Line 24 standard muffin-pan cups with fluted paper liners.

3. Prepare Cupcakes: On waxed paper, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. In 2-cup liquid measuring cup, mix sour cream, milk, and remaining vanilla; set aside. In large bowl, with mixer on low speed, beat granulated sugar and 8 tablespoons butter just until blended. Increase speed to high; beat 1 minute. Reduce speed to low; add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat 1 to 2 minutes more or until light and fluffy. Add flour mixture. Beat just until ingredients are combined, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula.

4. Spoon 1 heaping measuring tablespoon into each muffin-pan cup. Drop 1 peanut butter ball in center of each cup and top with another heaping tablespoon batter. Bake cupcakes 25 to 28 minutes or until toothpick inserted in cupcake comes out clean. (I baked for 26 minutes I believe.) Immediately remove cupcakes from pans and cool completely on wire rack.

5. When cupcakes are cool, prepare frosting.

Making the Frosting:
Cream butter and peanut butter together in a bowl. Add powdered sugar with mixer on low speed and gradually add milk and vanilla. Mix until frosting is smooth. If too thick, add more milk; if too thin, add more sugar. Frost cupcakes as desired.


** I don't ever mix my dry ingredients in one bowl and liquid ingredients in another one. I just mix my liquid ingredients in a bowl and then add all the dry ingredients individually to the liquid ones. I've never had any issues doing it this way. **

Reeses Peanut Butter Cupcakes for Chad's Birthday

Every year for the past 4 years I've made Devin's birthday cake for his party and I've never gone to real extremes to make something for Chad's birthday but this year I wanted to do something. So for his birthday I made him (from scratch) Reeses Peanut Butter Cupcakes. He LOVES peanut butter. I got the recipe from Little Miss Cuppycakes Blog. They were super easy to make and Chad loved them. Recipe and pictures below!

Reeses Peanut Butter Cupcakes

A chocolate cupcake filled with a peanut butter chocolate Reeses candy filling, topped with peanut butter frosting and half of a Reeses cup

Ingredients:

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped (3 oz is a little less than 1/2 cup. I used chocolate chips)
1/2 cup plus 3 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
peanut butter chocolate reese cup filling (recipe follows)
peanut butter frosting (recipe follows)
6 miniature reese cups, for topping

Directions:

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper or foil liners.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Place the chocolate and butter in a large heatproof bowl set over (but not touching) simmering water in a saucepan. Stir frequently until melted and smooth, about 5 minutes. Remove the bowl from the saucepan. Let the mixture cool to room temperature, 10-15 minutes.

Using a wooden spoon, stir the sugar into the chocolate mixture until combined. Stir in the eggs one at a time, beating until combined after each addition, and then beat in the vanilla. Gently fold in the flour mixture just until no traces of flour remain; do not overmix.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 20-22 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Transfer the cupcakes to the wire rack and let it cool completely, about 1 hour.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Reese Cup Filling

Ingredients:

3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped reese cups
about 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:

In a stand mixer, beat together peanut butter and vanilla on low. Slowly add the powdered sugar. once incorporated, add in the chopped reese cups. Then add heavy whipping cream until you reach desired creaminess.

Peanut Butter Frosting
Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 lb confectioners sugar, sifted
3/4 cups smooth peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-4 tbsp heavy whipping cream

Directions:

In a stand mixer, beat the butter until smooth, on low. Slowly add in confectioners sugar, once incorporated, beat on medium for about a minute. Add in the peanut butter until creamy, then add in vanilla. Once incorporated, add in whipping cream until frosting reaches desired consistency. Beat on medium for about a minute. (scrape down the sides throughout as needed so that all of the ingredients are getting incorporated equally into the mixture).

To fill cupcakes, I used the hollowing technique. To hollow a cupcake use a pairing knife inserted at an angle and gently saw a circle. You want to end up with a cone-shaped piece about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and about 1 inch deep. typically you discard (or eat) the cones, but I cut off half of the bottom and placed them on top of the filling. To frost the cupcakes, I went around the outline of the cone.