Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
My chocolate peanut butter cupcakes have a dark chocolate cake and a rich creamy chocolate peanut butter frosting. I add Reese’s peanut butter cups both in the batter and on top. This is one of my favorite cupcake recipes that I’ve been making for 10+ years. The best part of these cupcakes is the ganache frosting. So decadent and rich and topped with mini Reese’s peanut butter cup – it’s a chocolate peanut butter lover’s dream. Bonus points – it’s also a very easy recipe. No mixer is required for either the cupcakes or the frosting, just a whisk. You will need to plan ahead as the ganache takes a long time to set, but you can make it the day before you plan to make these Reese’s peanut butter cupcakes.
Ingredient Notes
Below are some notes on key ingredients for this recipe. For a full list of ingredients, see the recipe card below.
- Cocoa powder: If there’s one ingredient I usually go for a higher quality on its cocoa. My favorite is Guittard Cocoa Rouge. Another good one, slightly cheaper is Ghirardelli Unsweetened cocoa.
- Vegetable oil: I almost always go for oil over butter in chocolate layer cakes to make it super moist. You can use vegetable or canola oil.
- Buttermilk: If you don’t have store-bought buttermilk you can easily substitute with milk and lemon juice. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice to a measuring cup and then add enough milk until you have 1/2 cup total. Let sit for about five minutes before adding to your batter.
- Coffee: anytime you’re baking something chocolatey adding coffee doesn’t hurt. I often add espresso powder to brownies and for cakes and cupcakes such as these I add freshly brewed hot coffee. The coffee just enhances the chocolate flavor, the baked cake will not have a coffee flavor. If you prefer not to use coffee, you can substitute boiling water.
- Peanut Butter Cups: I use Reese’s Miniature cups for this recipe. You can also use standard size or the even smaller ‘unwrapped’ version. I like the size of the miniature cups for decoration, but even if you leave them out you’ll have plenty of chocolate peanut butter flavor from the frosting.
- Chocolate: For these cupcakes I used Guittard’s Extra Dark Chocolate Chips. For ganaches and glazes, higher quality chocolate makes a difference. I recommend chopping up chocolate bars or using higher quality chops, such as Guittard or Ghirardelli for best results.
- Peanut Butter – You’ll want to use creamy peanut butter, not crunchy, for smooth ganache.
Chocolate Cupcakes
My go-to chocolate cupcake recipe is really easy, no mixer required. To make the cupcakes combine the oil and sugar together in a large bowl. Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract and beat with a hand mixer / stand mixer or whisk. Add the dry ingredients alternating with the buttermilk. And lastly add in the hot coffee, mixing on low speed.
Divide the chocolate cupcake batter among 16 cupcake liners. Chop up 16 of the mini Reese’s peanut butter cups and divide them among the cupcake tins, sprinkling them on top of the batter. No need to mix them in, they will sink to the middle of the cupcakes as they bake. Bake for 18 minutes and then cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Ganache Frosting
Ganache is one of the easiest frostings to make but It does take a little bit of time to set up to the perfect spreadable texture. It’s just heavy cream, chocolate chips and in this case – peanut butter!
You can start your frosting before you make your cupcakes or even a day before. Mine usually takes 1.5 – 2 hours to set to a peanut butter-like texture but you can speed it up chilling it in a very shallow container.
To decorate these cupcake I go for a super simple piped swirl on top of the cupcakes. No piping tip required. I cut the bottom of my disposable piping bag about an inch from the bottom. You can also use a ziploc bag and get the same effect. Chop the remaining Reese’s cups in half and place one half on top of each cupcake for decoration.
Want to make these cupcakes dairy free? Swap out this cupcake recipe for the base and replace the heavy cream in the ganache with coconut cream.
Looking for more peanut butter recipes? Try my Peanut Butter Oreo Cake or my Peanut Butter S’mores Pie.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ½ cup hot coffee (or substitute hot water)
- 24 mini peanut butter cups, divided
- 1 ⅓ cups (8 oz) Semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Line muffin pans with cupcake liners. This recipe makes 16 cupcakes.
- In a medium bowl combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer mix together the oil and the sugar.
- Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and beat just until combined.
- Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk.
- Add the hot coffee and mix on low just until incorporated.
- Using an ice cream scoop or a spoon fill the cupcake liners about ¾ of the way full. One scoop from an ice cream scoop is the perfect amount.
- You will use 16 of the mini peanut butter cups in the batter and the remainder for decoration. With one peanut butter cup per cupcake, roughly chop or quarter it and place it on top of the batter. No need to mix it in, it will sink while baking.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes. Move to a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Bring the heavy cream to a simmer. Pour over the chocolate chips. Let sit for about a minute to start melting and then whisk until smooth.
- Whisk in the peanut butter.
- Cover and refrigerate until firm enough to pipe. It should take between 1.5-2 hours to reach a consistency like peanut butter. If you make the ganache in advance and it's too firm, microwave at 5 second intervals until soft enough to pipe or spread.
- To frost the cupcakes I am using a piping bag with no tip, I cut about an inch away from the point. You can also use a table knife or offset spatula to spread the ganache on the cupcakes.
- Half the remaining peanut butter cups and place one half on each cupcake for decoration.
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