Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting… Really, do I need to say more? These chocolate cupcakes are incredibly decadent and fluffy and topped with creamy peanut butter cream cheese frosting. All you need to do is make, eat, share, and repeat!
Why You’ll Love These Chocolate Cupcakes With Peanut Butter Frosting:
These chocolate cupcakes are insanely rich and luscious. The cake has a soft, tender texture, and the frosting is creamy, smooth, and perfectly sweetened. The combination is irresistible!
Top it with a mini Reese’s peanut butter cup, and you have perfection in a portable, hand-held dessert.
This recipe takes a total of 40 minutes to make. It’s totally worth it, in my opinion!
Ingredients Needed For This Recipe:
There are two important parts to making this cupcake recipe: The chocolate cupcakes and the peanut butter frosting!
Here is a list of the ingredients you’ll need for each section of the recipe.
For The Chocolate Cupcakes:
- Cocoa. Use unsweetened cocoa powder for baking.
- Hot coffee. You could also use hot water just make sure it is hot. Hot liquid will melt the cocoa solids in the cocoa powder and bring out more chocolate flavor.
- Sugar. White granulated sugar.
- Flour. Regular all-purpose flour is all you need. Make sure you measure the flour correctly. Either weigh it or spoon it lightly into a measuring cup.
- Baking powder and baking soda. Make sure these leaveners are not expired.
- Salt. Salt enhances the flavors and makes the chocolate taste like chocolate.
- Eggs. Eggs provide structure, texture, and moisture.
- Milk. You can use whole milk, skim milk or non-dairy milk. You can even substitute the milk with sour cream. We show several substitutions in our chocolate buttercream cake.
- Vegetable oil. Canola oil or light corn oil work well because they are flavorless and won’t distort the chocolate flavor.
- Vanilla extract. It is an expensive ingredient but it doesn’t take much to enhance the flavors and make a big difference.
For The Peanut Butter Frosting:
- Cream cheese. Make sure it is at room temperature and soft before you begin.
- Creamy peanut butter. We used commercial peanut butter. Natural peanut butter does give the same creamy consistency.
- Butter. The butter needs to be at room temperature before you start.
- Whole milk. The milk helps thin the frosting but if you want a thick filling, skip the milk.
- Vanilla. Vanilla really enhances the flavors.
- Salt. Please don’t skip the salt, it really makes a difference in this frosting and filling.
- Powdered sugar. Also called confectioners sugar. If it is lumpy, sift it through a sieve.
Note: You’ll also want some Reese’s Mini Peanut Butter Cups to top off the cupcakes!
How To Make Peanut Butter Filled Cupcakes:
We’ve listed out the basic instructions below to give you an idea of how quick and easy it is to make this chocolate cupcake recipe! To make it even easier for you, we broke it down by section.
Note: Make sure not to skip the full printable recipe card at the bottom of the page. There, you’ll find all of the ingredient amounts and details you’ll need.
Before you start baking anything, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prep the cupcake tins with cupcake liners!
For the Cupcakes:
- Make cupcake batter: For this chocolate cupcake recipe, I used the same recipe for my chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting.
- Bake the cupcakes: Fill the cupcake tins just over half full. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for up to 10 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. While you are waiting, it’s the perfect time to work on the peanut butter frosting!
For the Frosting and Filling:
- Mix creamy ingredients: Combine the cream cheese, peanut butter, and butter in a mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium-high speed for 2 to 3 minutes or until smooth.
- Add wet ingredients: Add the milk, vanilla, and salt and mix everything at medium speed for about 1 minute.
- Mix in powdered sugar: Slowly add the powdered sugar and blend at a very low speed until combined. Increase the speed to medium-high and blend 2 to 3 minutes until smooth.
How To Fill And Frost The Chocolate Cupcakes:
- Fill the cupcakes: Fill a pastry bag with peanut butter frosting and pushing the tip partway down into the cupcake. Gently squeeze the bag so that frosting gets pushed into the center of the cupcake.
- Frost the top of the cupcakes: Spread the frosting onto the cupcakes with a knife or use a decorator bag to pipe it on.
Garnish the frosted cupcakes with a mini Reese’s peanut butter cup, and enjoy!
Tips To Make The Perfect Cupcake
- Scrape the bowl! Make sure when you are making the cake batter and frosting that you are scraping down the side of the bowl in between mixing all of the ingredients. That way, everything is getting mixed.
- Use an electric beater. To create the best consistency for the frosting, use an electric beater to really get a smooth and creamy peanut butter frosting.
- Sift the powdered sugar. Before adding the powdered sugar to the frosting mix, make sure to sift it to eliminate any sugar lumps.
- Don’t have a piping bag? If you don’t have a decorating tip or decorating bags, you can put the frosting in a ziplock bag and cut a small section of the corner off. It’s much quicker than spreading the frosting with a knife.
- Use softened cream cheese and butter. If you forget to pull them out of the fridge before starting this recipe, then you can speed the softening time by dicing them up into small cubes, cover them with a towel, and let them sit on the counter while you bake the cupcakes. You can also use the microwave, but be careful with this technique because you can reach the melting point pretty quickly, especially butter. Use quick bursts and check on them every 3 to 5 seconds!
Frequently Asked Questions About Peanut Butter Frosted Chocolate Cupcakes:
When putting together this cupcake recipe, we came across a couple of frequently asked questions we wanted to answer.
Can I use a different frosting on these chocolate cupcakes?
Yes! If you are not a fan of peanut butter, consider trying one of these homemade frostings instead:
- Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
- Ermine Frosting
- Coconut Buttercream Frosting
- American buttercream
Any of these pair nicely with the chocolate cupcakes!
How can I make these chocolate cupcakes fluffy and moist?
When it comes to making cupcakes, it is very easy to over-bake them and dry them out to the point where they just turn into crumbs. To avoid that from happening and keeping the cupcakes moist, here are a few things you can do:
- Watch the bake time. Some ovens differ and you may need to adjust the baking time. Use a toothpick to poke one of the cupcakes. If it comes out clean then remove them from the oven.
- Don’t over-mix the batter! This can cause air bubbles and pockets, and an overmixed batter will make the cupcakes sink in the middle.
- Be mindful of how much flour you add. If you add too much flour, it throws the ratios off and can leave you with a very dry cupcake. Make sure you follow the exact measurements listed in the recipe card down below.
How do I store these peanut butter frosted chocolate cupcakes?
To maintain the cupcakes’ freshness, store them in an airtight container and place them in the fridge. Leaving them out on the countertop can cause them to go bad quicker!
Some Other Recipes We Are Sure You Will Love:
- Red Velvet Cupcakes
- Black Forrest Cherry Cake
- Banana Cake In A Mug
- Double Chocolate Mug Cake
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Layer Cake
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Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting
Ingredients
Chocolate Cupcakes
- 1 cup 80g cocoa
- 1 cup hot coffee
- 2 cups sugar 400g
- 1-¾ cup 254g all purpose flour
- 1-½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1-½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1-½ cups creamy peanut butter
- 4 ounces butter softened
- 2 tablespoons whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1-½ cups powdered sugar
Topping
- 36 Reese’s Mini Peanut Butter Cups
Instructions
Chocolate Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350°. Line 12 cupcake tins with paper cupcake liners.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the hot coffee and cocoa together until smooth. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Using a whisk, blend and sift the ingredients together.
- Add the eggs, milk, oil, vanilla, and the cocoa mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds until the dry ingredients are moist. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and beat for another minute. The batter will be thin.
- Fill the cupcake tins just over half full. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Let cool in the cupcake tins for 5 to 10 minutes before removing them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
- Combine the cream cheese, peanut butter and butter in a medium-size mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on medium-high speed for 2 to 3 minutes or until smooth. Stop the mixer once or twice to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add the milk, vanilla and salt. Mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add the powdered sugar and blend on very low speed or by hand until the sugar is absorbed. If you start the mixer too fast you will create a sugar-dust cloud in the kitchen.
- Increase the speed to medium-high and blend 2 to 3 minutes until smooth. Stop the mixer partway through to scrape down the sides.
Fill and frost the cupcakes:
- Fill the cupcakes: You can do this easily by filling a pastry bag with frosting and pushing the tip partway down into the cupcake. Gently squeeze the bag so that frosting gets pushed into the center of the cupcake. If you see the cupcake start to bulge then stop squeezing. Another way to fill the cupcakes is to cut a small core out of the center of each cupcake and pipe the frosting inside.
- Spread the frosting onto the cupcakes with a knife or use a decorator bag or a ziplock bag to pipe it on.
- Garnish with a mini Reese’s peanut butter cup.
Nutrition
This recipe was originally posted on August 31, 2015. We updated the post with new photos and added some helpful tips.
Sabrina
Thursday 3rd of September 2015
Yumm
Dahn
Thursday 3rd of September 2015
thanks Sabrina, its an addictive treat