Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes (With Cream Cheese Frosting)

When I was first testing this peanut butter cup cupcake (say that five times fast), I couldn't decide if I wanted to fill the chocolate cupcakes with something - ganache? More peanut butter frosting? But decided a classic chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting was the way to go.

Why These Chocolate Cupcakes Are Extra Moist

I've tested these chocolate cupcakes so many times because I wanted them to have enough lift, still be moist, and be rich. I found that swapping out dutch-processed cocoa powder for natural cocoa powder gave more lift, since it reacts with leaveners differently, and using a smidge more flour gave the cupcakes more structure.

I know we all love American buttercream, but there is something so moreish about cream cheese frosting. And cream cheese frosting with a whipped cream base, which means no need to use butter, AND it stays stable? Be still, my heart.

If you really want to go all out, you can easily core each cupcake and add more peanut butter frosting or some chocolate ganache, but sometimes simple truly is better!

Peanut Butter Cupcake Ingredients

• Smooth peanut butter is the way to go. Make sure you're using the type of creamy peanut butter that you get with Jif or Skippy (why do I always want to write jiffy!) and not the type with oil on top. Natural peanut butter is going to make the frosting runny and sloppy, and that's a no from me.
• Natural cocoa powder reacts with baking soda. Because these cupcakes have both baking soda and baking powder, we need to use natural cocoa powder. Dutch-processed cocoa powder is neutral and needs to be paired with baking powder. If you use Dutch-processed cocoa powder, you'll get sunken cupcakes and no one wants that!
• Vegetable oil > butter. I swap out butter for a neutral oil in my chocolate cupcakes and cakes. It means you don't need a mixer because you don't need to use the cream method (when you beat butter and sugar together) and you get a super moist cupcake. Cocoa powder can make cupcakes super dry, so using oil instead of butter is going to help combat that problem. Just make sure you use a neutral oil like vegetable oil or sunflower oil! Nothing with a strong taste.

Let's Make This Recipe

Step 1: Mix up your ingredients 🥣 Whisk all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, and all the wet ingredients (save the hot water) in another bowl or jug.

Step 2: Add wet to dry 👩🏻‍🍳 Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, then slowly pour in the very hot water. Whisk until smooth. The hot water will bloom the cocoa powder, which is a fancy way to say it'll make it richer and more chocolatey.

Step 3: Fill up your liners 🧁 Line a cupcake pan with 12 liners. Fill up the liners so they're ⅔-3/4 full with cupcake batter. Any more batter and they'll overflow in the oven! Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes.

Step 4: Start the Frosting 🥄 Once your cupcakes are completely cooled, you can make your frosting. In a bowl with a handheld mixer, beat the heavy cream with sugar, salt, and vanilla until it resembles Greek yogurt.

Step 5: Add Final Ingredients 👩🏻‍🍳 Add the cold cream cheese and peanut butter, then mix the frosting for a few minutes until thick.

Step 6: Frost Your Cupcakes! 🧁 Use a large open star tip to pipe frosting on the cooled cupcakes. I like to then slice Reese's peanut butter cups in half and use those to decorate each cupcake, but you could also use mini peanut butter cups.

Love Peanut Butter? Me Too!