Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes
Updated March 26, 2019
First of all, our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by Sandy. We hope you are all safe. We are thinking about you!
Happy Halloween! I hope the ghosts and gobblins haven’t gotten you yet:) Every year we stock up on Halloween candy to pass out to the kiddos. I try to buy candy that I don’t like so I am not tempted to eat it. Well, this year I bought a big bag of assorted chocolate candy. I resisted everything but the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. They get me every time. I know the candy was supposed to be for the trick-or-treaters, but those orange wrappers kept staring me down.
I knew I would eat all of them if I didn’t do something with them, hiding them never works since I am the one doing the hiding. I decided to bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes. Chocolate cupcakes with a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup hidden inside and creamy peanut butter frosting. Oh yeah!
I loved the Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes that I recently made, so I used the same chocolate cupcake recipe this time around. Why mess with a good thing? Except this time I put a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup inside of the chocolate cupcake batter. So in a way, I did hide the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups:)
I topped the cupcakes with a light and creamy peanut butter buttercream frosting. I am usually not the biggest frosting fan, but this frosting makes me want to stick my head in the bowl and never leave. Ok, I will leave once the frosting is all gone, but only so I can make more. It is Divine with a capital D! It is the perfect frosting to finish the rich and chocolaty cupcakes too!
So instead of eating a dozen Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, I ate a dozen Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes. Hmmm…somehow my plan didn’t work out so well. Oops! Oh well, these cupcakes are worth every calorie and then some!
Everyone has been asking us about Caleb’s Halloween costume. Well, here you go! He is a pea pod! Are you surprised? 🙂 We dressed him up for a neighborhood Halloween party and he loved his costume…for about 5 minutes. Then he had too much fun ripping off the peas and his hat. He is the cutest little pea!
Make sure you save some Halloween candy so you can make these Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes. And if you have to sneak some of your kids candy, I won’t tell. Just make sure you share the cupcakes. They will love the surprise inside. Happy Halloween!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes
Ingredients
- For the Dark Chocolate Cupcakes:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter cut into 4 pieces
- 2 oz bittersweet chocolate finely chopped
- 1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa
- 3/4 cup all-purpose Gold Medal flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream I used Chobani Greek yogurt
- 12 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
- For the Peanut Butter Frosting:
- 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup of cream peanut butter
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- Mini Peanut Butter Cups for topping cupcakes, if desired
Instructions
- 1. To make the cupcakes: preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.
- 2. Place butter, chocolate and cocoa powder in a medium heatproof bowl. Microwave in 30 second spurts on 50% power, stirring in between, until the butter and chocolate are melted and the mixture is smooth. (Alternatively, you could do this step in a double boiler.) Set the mixture aside to cool until it is warm to the touch.
- 3. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Whisk the eggs in a medium bowl to combine, then add the sugar, vanilla and salt and continue whisking until fully incorporated. Add the cooled chocolate mixture to the bowl and whisk to combine. Sift one-third of the flour mixture into the bowl and whisk gently to combine. Add the Greek yogurt or sour cream and whisk to combine. Finally, sift the the rest of the flour mixture into the bowl and whisk until everything is well combined. The cupcake batter will be thick.
- 4. Place a spoonful of cupcake batter on the bottom of each cupcake liner. Place a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup on top of the batter. Cover the peanut butter cups with remaining batter, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes. Remove the pan to a wire rack and let the cupcakes cool for a few minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- 5. While the cupcakes are cooling, make the peanut butter buttercream frosting. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and peanut butter until creamy. On low speed, add in powdered sugar. Mix until combined and add the heavy cream. Mix until frosting is fluffy. You can play around with the amounts of powdered sugar and heavy cream to get the exact texture and consistency that you want.
- 6. Frost cooled cupcakes with the peanut butter frosting and top each cupcake with a mini peanut butter cup, if desired.
Have you tried this recipe?
Leave a comment below and share a photo on Instagram. Tag @twopeasandpod and hashtag it with #twopeasandtheirpod
You always have the most delicious chocolate and peanut butter combos on here! I know I can always come to your site when I need a treat because Chocolate and PB are my fave! Hope you have an excellent Halloween and thanks for another delicious recipe!
These cupcakes look so delicious and Caleb’s costume is ADORABLE!!!! love seeing such cute photos of him 🙂 perfect costume
How cute is that little pea pod!
Cutest baby ever~seriously…I’m in love with Caleb!
Cupcakes look perfect!
Perfect for Halloween!
xo
Your little one is so adorable!!! Loving the cupcakes… I am afraid I would want to eat more than one! Very dangerous.
These are the perfect Halloween treat. Way better than a bowl of candy!
My husband would be all over these! …wait, who am I kidding, we would both be all over these!
And could Caleb BE any cuter?!
Amazing! Love this combination…and the costume is too cute!
Your son is so cute. What a cute pea pod!
Those cupcakes look evilish delicious! I love that they’re dark chocolate with a surprise inside. Evil cupcakes! 😛
These look fantastic but I’m really in love with little Caleb’s costume! He’s so adorable!
Oh Maria, those look SO dangerous! I want one…
what a fun cupcake! perfect flavors together!!!!
I wonder if you are as high elevation as we are in Cache Valley, Northern Utah. I love cupcakes but since we moved here, they don’t come out right. Any advice, or is this recipe already adjusted to high elevation?
Love the cupcakes but am loving Caleb’s costume even more!
You have the cutest little pea! Nice of him to wear a costume that fits your blog!
Looks delicious! I would so love to try some. I am sure it tastes great.
What I love most about Reese’s is the inside peanut butter filling. I’ve never been able to find a replacement recipe. Any suggestions?
ah, that’s the cutest little pea I’ve ever seen!!
Cutie pie Caleb!! And great cupcakes – I think I could stick my head in the frosting bowl and never leave, too!!
Made these today. Totally fantastic and yummy! My batter was super “fluffy” and the cupcakes kinda sank in the middle when baked but it wasn’t anything a little dallop of fabulous buttercream frosting couldn’t fix. I followed the recipe exactly. I have baked at least ten recipes from Pinterest, but this is the first one I would make again! The whole fam LOVED em’. Thanks for the recipe, a definate must bake!!
He’s so adorable. Happy Halloween!
I made these tonight and the middle of the cupcakes completely sank. Shouldn’t there be more flour? I didn’t even think about it until I was watching them bake and then I realized this was probably the issue. Also, next time I would use sour cream instead of the Greek yogurt. These cupcakes had great flavor but with a giant dip in the middle it made frosting difficult, not to mention it looked ty looked messy. I also sifted the powder sugar prior to putting it in my mixer, but step was not listed in the recipe. I have never made frosting before without sifting the powdered sugar.
Please let me know on the amount of flour as I would like to try making these again. Thanks!
Hi, I have made so many of your recipes, to standing ovations from friends and family. I am a sweet and salty-aholic. I have a question though, can I do this will a milk chocolate instead. I am not a fan of dark chocolate. Do you think it will change the composition of the cupcake?
Sure, you can use milk chocolate. Enjoy!
Wow, I am SO glad I didn’t see this recipe until all the candy in my house was gone! I would have baked them immediately and probably eaten them all! But good to keep in mind for upcoming holiday parties…these look divine. Thanks, Maria!
This is the perfect flavor combo.
I was so excited to try these, but something went terribly wrong. The Reeses Cups all sank to the bottom and the top of the cupcakes sunk. I had planned on taking them to a family gathering, but I pitched them instead. I followed the recipes to a tee. I really wish more readers would try your recipes and post their comments. I always find this helpful. It seems like your readers only comment about how good the recipes sound but nobody ever bothers to actually make the recipes. Your beautifucl pictures are nice, but tried and true comments from your readers would be even better!
Maria these are just mouth watering! And I love Caleb’s costume even more!
These cupcakes look wonderful! I love that you put a reese cup in the bottom!:) And I love Caleb’s costume! So adorable!
I completely agree with you Baker Mom. I had posted a similar comment above – I actually made these as well and had the same issues you did. It’s frustrating when many people just post about how good something looks but do not actually make the recipe to see what works and what doesn’t. Glad to know it wasn’t just me that had those issues! Unfortunately I won’t be making these again unless I can figure out what went wrong and why the cupcakes sank in the middle so much.
Sorry you had trouble with the cupcakes. The recipe comes from Cooks Illustrated and we’ve made it several times without having any problems.
YUM-azing!! I ended up making three batches of these. I ran out of full-sized pb cups toward the end so I stuffed three minis in the middle….almost liked that better! Both ways were fantastic and that buttercream was on everyone’s lips (not literally!) at work, for a couple days! Lol. Thanks for sharing….oh, and the cupcakes sold for $5 each at my church’s bake auction. 🙂
I love this combo and baked them this weekend….gave some as gifts to teachers at school. Everyone loved them, I must say they are extremely rich, go figure lol. I usually don’t have a problem inhaling every sugary goodie that crosses my path,but these, actually slowed me down a little:) Amazing and delicious, will make again! Might make half frosting recipe next time, I had a lot left over with a normal amount on each cupcake.
Can I use regular unsweetened cocoa powder instead of Dutch-processed? I can’t buy it locally. Thanks!
Yes, you can! Enjoy!
I made chocolate cupcakes today (with the Reese’s cup in the middle) & used this recipe for the frosting and they turned out deliciously yummy! The frosting was so light yet still peanut buttery! I will definitely keep this recipe for future cupcakes!
Absolutely lovely!
The cupcakes are just gorgeous. My mom has given it a two thumbs up.
PB frosting – i have reduced the butter to 3/4cup and the powdered sugar by half to 1 1/4cups. The taste is great but the texture is runny. How can i make it thicker?
You can add more powdered sugar to make it thicker.
Are the peanut butter cups in the middle regular size?
Regular size, but mini would work too!
Is a spoonful a tablespoon or more? Regular sized peanut butter cups to be used in the cupcake?
I made these cupcakes today…they taste amazing! And they’re husband-approved
Yay!