Chocolate peanut buttery goodness.
Oh my word. This is over the top, even for me!
My son loves the combination of chocolate and peanut butter (I’m pretty sure it’s genetic,) so I’m always happy to oblige by making him a chocolate birthday cake with peanut butter frosting. This year, since I was making peanut butter cookies for my niece, I upped the ante a little and got creative.
Using a jumbo cupcake pan and liners, I dropped a spoonful of “crust” made with crushed peanut butter cookies (see the previous post for a good PB cookie recipe), melted butter, and chocolate syrup in each liner. A regular sized peanut butter cup went on top of the crust, and then I added devil’s food cake batter and baked them. When the cakes were cool they were frosted with a whipped peanut butter frosting.
I admit (gasp!) that I used a cake mix. Don’t judge me! I have other pressing things on my schedule right now, and my son wouldn’t notice the difference between a boxed mix and scratch.
| Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes | Print |
- 1 cup crushed peanut butter cookies
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 2 teaspoons chocolate syrup (like Hershey's)
- 9 peanut butter cups (.75 oz. each)
- 1 prepared box of chocolate cake mix
- .....
- Frosting:
- ¼ cup butter
- ¼ cup shortening
- ¼ cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ cup whipping cream
- Heat oven to 350 F.
- Line 9 cavities of a jumbo muffin pan with paper liners.
- In a small bowl, mix together the crushed cookies, melted butter, and chocolate syrup. Divide between the 9 liners, pressing to cover the bottom of each.
- Set one peanut butter cup in each liner on top of the cookie mixture.
- Divide the cake batter evenly. This should fill each one about ⅔ full.
- Bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the top half of the cupcake. (If you put it down too far it will be covered with the chocolate from the peanut butter cup.)
- Cool on a wire rack. Frost and serve! Make sure you refrigerate any that are left.
- To make frosting:....................
- Cream together the butter, shortening, peanut butter, and vanilla.
- Add the powdered sugar and mix together.
- On low speed, slowly add the whipping cream. Turn up the mixer to medium high and whip for 1 minute, scraping bowl often.
- Adjust the thickness by adding a little powdered sugar to thicken the frosting, or a little whipping cream to thin it.
Crush enough PB cookies to make 1 cup of crumbs.
Put crumb mixture in the liners and top with peanut butter cups.
Add cake batter until 2/3 full and bake.
Whip up the icing, nice and fluffy!
Frost them and serve!
There is nothing more I can say. Not because my mouth is stuffed full of a cupcake that has, on the chart, passed “indulgent” and is hovering between “decadent” and “toxic”, but because the picture at the top of the page speaks for itself. As a dear friend used to say: “It’ll make your tongue slap your brains out!”
Those look amazing. I have one son who’s a chocolate and mint fan, another who’s a chocolate and peanut butter fan, and I’m all about chocolate and raspberry so I think we’ve got all the bases covered at my house. I’m not the best baker in the world (although I do a lot of it to relieve stress) but I do frequently use a “doctored up” cake mix when I’m in a rush.
These sound great. I usually just make a box cake and then my own peanut butter frosting, but now you’ve issued a challenge. I shall be trying this next time!
Cant wait to make them they look and sound so good
Thanks, Gretta! They’re just a wee bit evil…but a GOOD evil.
Since you brought up the subject . . . I was wondering why you don’t use your gifts for good instead of evil. But as you say, it’s a good evil. And after all, just thinking of these (I adore PB and chocolate), I am in heaven.
Oh come on, Mary Rose…we all know that being evil is much more fun!