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Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes – What’s better than a chocolate cupcake? A PEANUT BUTTER CUP Cupcake that’s a chocolate cupcake filled with peanut butter filling and topped with the BEST chocolate frosting ever…and then sprinkled with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups because, obviously.
These are EPIC cupcakes. Totally legit cupcakes. EVERYONE raved about them. Remember that party I went to last week, where the birthday girl liked peanut butter and chocolate? She loved these cupcakes: fluffy from scratch chocolate cupcakes filled with peanut butter filling and a ganache-like chocolate frosting.
Ingredients Needed
- Chocolate Cupcakes: The recipe below in my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe made with unsweetened cocoa powder, granulated sugar, vegetable oil, hot water, all-purpose flour, baking soda, and hot water (to bloom and increase the chocolate flavor). To save time you can also use a chocolate cake mix and make cupcakes with it.
- Peanut Butter Filling: This cake filing is one of my favorites, made with shelf-stable peanut butter, sugar, vanilla, and heavy whipping cream (no substitutes).
- Cooked Chocolate Frosting: This sweet chocolate icing is very similar to ganache. It’s super rich and SO good, but you could also use chocolate buttercream.
How to make Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes
- Make the peanut butter filling by mixing together peanut butter, sugar, and vanilla.
- Slowly add heavy whipping cream while mixing to create a fluffy filling.
- Make and cool the chocolate cupcakes. Once cool, add filling to a piping bag and pipe into the center of the cupcake.
- Make desired frosting. Frost cupcakes and cover with chopped peanut butter cups.
Expert Tips
- Don’t let the list of ingredients and instructions scare you. Use semi-homemade options where possible.
- Be sure cupcakes are cooled before inserting filling and frosting.
- I love topping these with chopped peanut butter cups because more peanut butter and chocolate is always better.
Bakers Notes
- I am loving these cupcake liners I got on amazon. They are perfect for chocolate cupcakes because you can’t see through them like you would white, and they weren’t too thin or too greasy.
- Want to skip making cupcakes from scratch? No problem, use a box mix and then just make the filling and frosting. No one will know!
- There are two good ways to fill a cupcake. One, cut a small cone shape out of the top/center of the cupcake and fill with the filling, then frost. You can even replace a bit of the top of the cupcake, if you want. Or, for a much easier filling method, use the Bismarck tip with a pastry bag and just press it into the cupcake. Press to fill the cupcake, moving the tip around very gently until you can see the filling is filling up the spaces inside. Then frost as usual.
- I chilled my frosting for a few hours to help speed along the thickening process. You can even start by making the frosting before you make the cupcakes, if you’re in a hurry.
Storage
Store cupcakes loosely covered or in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Cupcakes, filling, and frosting can all be made up to 24 hours ahead or you can freeze them longer.
Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes Recipe
These Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes have it all: an easy chocolate cupcake filled with peanut butter filling and the BEST chocolate frosting!
Recipe Video
Prep Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Chill Time 1 hour
Total Time 2 hours 45 minutes
Ingredients
- You can use 2 dozen baked and cooled chocolate cupcakes from a box mix OR
For from scratch cupcakes:
- 3 cups (372g) all purpose flour
- 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (40g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups (474ml) hot water
- ¾ cup (177ml) vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons (30ml) white or distilled vinegar
- 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules optional
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Frosting:
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter
- 1 ½ cups (300g) granulated sugar
- 1 ¼ cups (100g) unsweetened cocoa
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups (287ml) heavy whipping cream
- ¼ cup (62g) sour cream
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee granules optional
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups for garnish
For the Filling:
- ½ cup (134g) creamy peanut butter not natural
- ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup (237ml) heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- Want to skip the skip of making cupcakes from scratch? No problem, buy plain ones from the store or make them from a box mix, skip to step 5.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cupcake pans with liners (around 30).
- Make the cupcakes: whisk the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk the hot water, oil, vinegar, coffee (if using), and vanilla in a large measuring cup. Whisk, then stir, the liquid into the dry mixture.
- Divide evenly among cupcake liners (about 2/3 full) and bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before filling and frosting.
- While the cupcakes are baking, make the frosting. The frosting requires cooling/chilling time. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium low heat. Stir in the sugar and cocoa. It will make a thick paste. Whisk together the heavy whipping cream, sour cream, vanilla, and coffee (if using) in a large measuring cup. Slowly stir the cream mixture into the saucepan, whisking as needed, until smooth. Cook until the mixture is thick and hot, 4-8 minutes (just until it starts to bubble), then cool for 2-3 hours. I like to cool it until the bowl is easy to touch, then chill it until it’s thick like frosting, stirring occasionally. Chilling will help it set faster, especially if it’s warm in your house.
- Make the filling: beat peanut butter and sugar with a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until smooth. Add in vanilla, then slowly add whipping cream and turn the speed to high. Beat until stiff peaks form. Chill until ready to use.
- To assemble cupcakes: fill each cupcake with some of the peanut butter filling. You can either use a knife to cut out some of the cupcake and spoon or pipe it in, or you can use a Wilton Cupcake Filling Tip (Bismarck) and a pastry bag to fill by just pushing the tip into the cupcake and moving it slightly as you press the bag to fill the cupcake. Frost with the frosting and sprinkle with chopped peanut butter cups.
- Store in refrigerator up to 3 days. Cupcakes can be made and frozen ahead of time for up to one month. Filling should be used within 24 hours (store in refrigerator) and frosting can be made up to 2 days ahead and stored in the refrigerator (it might harden completely, let come to room temperature and stir to loosen).
Recipe Nutrition
Serving: 1cupcake | Calories: 378kcal | Carbohydrates: 42g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 23g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 33mg | Sodium: 1801mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 29g
Nutritional information not guaranteed to be accurate
Okay, so this frosting is just ganache made with semi-sweet chocolate and sour cream. (Just going by the flavor.)
Don’t waste your butter and your sugar – equal parts cream and chips. And I guess add sour cream if you want?
And you CAN use natural peanut butter…but it looks like this recipe is a “fancier” version of the old peanut butter pie filling…peanut butter, powdered sugar, and *cool whip* (whipped topping). Your whipped cream probably won’t really set up to the firmness that you’re normally looking for in a filling.
Oh – and they don’t rise very much during baking.
Love the recipes on your site, I’m from the uk and get confused with cup sizes as we use metric measurements. I’ve looked for the weight alternative for metric and they always give different weights for a cup size. Would love metric or grams sizes along side of your cup size. So I could try your yummy recipes
These were very good cupcakes. Next time I make them I will use less sugar, the tops were crunchy, indicating that there was to much sugar. Otherwise they were moist and the flavor was good.
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