Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

"The great lesson is that the sacred is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one's daily life, in one's neighbors, friends and family, in one's backyard."    

  - Abraham Maslow     


                 



 

I love peanut butter. I just love it. Haagen Dazs Chocolate peanut butter ice cream is my go to binge food around a certain time of the month (and their Sea Salt Caramel Gelato, but I digress). So these cupcakes really do it for me. It's hard for me to have these in the house without wanting to eat them all in one sitting. I've been making these for a while now, and they're always a big hit. I can't believe I haven't shared these with you sooner!




Here is my peanut butter cream cheese filling 

I start with my Best Moist Chocolate Cupcake Recipe. These really are the best chocolate cupcakes ever, sorry, they just are. They're light and super moist at the same time. The flavor and the texture is spot on. Then I fill those delicious little morsels with a cream cheese peanut butter filling. A fluffy peanut butter buttercream tops these babies off.

Here are my Best Moist Chocolate Cupcakes, these are the most awesome chocolate cupcakes I've ever had.

So you don't just get a little hint of peanut butter flavor, you get a giant peanut butter blast in your mouth!

This is the tip I used for filling the cupcakes. I used a round tip large enough for the filling to come out of. You can also use a filling tip, you can see a photo of one of those in my Raspberry Filled and Frosted Cupcakes post.

The cream cheese in the filling adds a little tang like cream cheese does. Which pairs perfectly with the creamy and fluffy peanut butter buttercream. All paired up with the yummy chocolatey goodness of the cupcakes.

Here are my cupcakes after being filled

 

My peanut butter buttercream, nice and fluffy ready to frost my cupcakes

Here's a funny little story. I made these for a client, I had a large cake box filled with them. The lid was closed and I opened the box and, whoosh! A big hit of peanut butter smell took over the air around us. It was wonderful. Peanut butter has a distinct, intoxicating and delicious, very strong smell.

Here is the tip I used, a large star tip, Wilton's 1 M.

If you are in a hurry and don't have time to fill cupcakes, the peanut butter buttercream is really easy to throw together. You can just frost the cupcakes with the buttercream and you will still have something special.

 

 

To frost cupcakes start on the outside, going in a circle

 

The peanut butter buttercream isn't too sweet, like a lot of standard buttercreams. It gets body from not just the powdered sugar, the peanut butter gives it body as well, so you don't need as much powdered sugar to provide that stiffness. If this is important to you, make sure your peanut butter doesn't have sugar in it.

 

Then as you go around, sort of build up the frosting on top of the first layer, finishing by bringing the frosting into the middle. If you don't like the way it looks, just take a knife and scrape it off, or lift it off, (making sure not to get any crumbs in the frosting,) put it back into the bowl and try again until you like the way it looks.  Practice really does make perfect.

If you have a peanut butter lover in your life you'll need to make these for them. You will seriously blow their little minds!

Like peanut butter but want to use another cupcake? Both the filling and the frosting, or just one of them, would be great with:

The Best Moist and Fluffy White Cupcakes

If you like the banana and peanut butter combination, you could try the frosting with my

Moist Banana Cupcakes

Or the frosting would be great on these dark chocolate little gems

Mini Dark Chocolate Cupcake Bites





Here are my little darlings, Coco and Lucien. They have been enjoying the warm weather and playing outside a lot lately. They especially love chasing birds, squirrels and bunnies. They just chase them. If they actually get close to catching them they just bark at them. Maybe they just think they're playing a fun game with their fury little friends. However, I'm sure the birds, squirrels and bunnies don't feel the same way.

If you didn't already know, I have a second Etsy shop! Coco's Kitchen is where I sell vintage cookbooks and vintage kitchen items. You'll find vintage Le Creuset, vintage Pyrex, vintage Descoware, lots of vintage cookbooks and more!  I add new items all the time, and I would love it if you checked it out, and favorited my shop, and even spread the word, if that's your kind of thing. Thank you so much!

Of course, House of Lucien is my shop where I sell vintage china, vintage glass, collectibles and more, for setting a beautiful table or just adding beauty to your home.

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The vintage pink and blue tablecloth, antique Bavaria small plates with pink roses, Hammersley China Cake Stand, vintage silverplated cake server, and the Wexford 2 Tiered Tidbit Stand are available at my Etsy shop, House of Lucien.







Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

This recipe makes about 25 cupcakes

Ingredients

25 of my Best Moist Chocolate Cupcakes  - Cooled. (that recipe makes over 30 of them so you might have a few more cupcakes than filling or frosting depending on how much frosting you use, etc.)

OR 25 of your favorite chocolate cupcakes


Peanut Butter Filling Ingredients

1/2 cup or 1 stick butter (114 grams), room temperature

1 1/2 cups (354 ml.) smooth peanut butter - I used Adams natural peanut butter that has no added sugar, if you use a peanut butter that has added sugar you might want to use a little less powdered sugar

1 - 8 oz. (226 grams) package cream cheese at cool room temperature

1 3/4 cups (225 g.) powdered sugar

2 tablespoons of milk

2 tsp. vanilla extract


Peanut Butter Buttercream Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) (339 g.) butter - room temperature

2 cups creamy peanut butter - I used Adams natural peanut butter that has no added sugar, if you use peanut butter that has sugar in it your frosting will be sweeter. Or use less powdered sugar, but you'll need to use enough to get the frosting to be a good spreading consistency.

3 Tablespoons milk or as needed

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

4 cups (500 g.) powdered sugar


Grated chocolate for topping, optional


Directions

Start by making the filling. Beat together the cream cheese and the butter until thoroughly mixed, in a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer. Add the peanut butter and mix again until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and the vanilla.  Mix until well combined. Now check the consistency. If you want the filling a little thinner, add milk a tablespoon at a time to get the consistency that you want.

Set the filling aside, and start the frosting. If you only have one bowl for your stand mixer, then clean it now to make the frosting.

Make the frosting. In the bowl of the stand mixer, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer add the room temperature butter and mix it together until it's broken down and fluffy. Add the peanut butter and mix again until completely mixed and incorporated. Add about half of the powdered sugar and the vanilla and mix again. Add the rest of the powdered sugar and a few tablespoons of milk and mix again until fluffy. Now check the consistency. If it's too tightly held together and not fluffy, add a little more milk and mix again. I probably added maybe 6 tablespoons of milk total to get it really light and fluffy.

Fill the cupcakes -

Spoon this mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a filling tip, (a large long tip used for filling cupcakes) or a round tip big enough to push the filling through . You can see photos of a filling tip in this post, Raspberry Filled and Frosted Cupcakes.
Fill the cupcakes with the filling by pushing the tip 3/4 of the way down the cupcake, squeeze, then slowly lift up to fill the entire inside of the cupcake. I recommend using a test cupcake. Fill one, then cut it open to see if you filled it entirely. If you don't fill it with enough filling, the cupcake could just absorb the filling and not come across as a filled cupcake. Once you do a few and get a hang of it, it will go easy from there. Fill them up good, but don't overfill them. If you overfill them, they burst, or crack open.

Frost the cupcakes. As shown above, I used a large star tip, Wilton's 1M tip. 

Top cupcakes with grated chocolate, if desired. To grate some chocolate, just take a piece of chocolate, (I used a little  Ghirardelli square, because that's what I had laying around.)  Use the small holes of a box grater, or use a Microplane and grate the chocolate onto it. Make sure your chocolate is cool or cold, it needs to be hard and solid, and not melty.

Serve them immediately or within a few hours. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge. These are best eaten at room temperature, so if taking them from the fridge, let them sit on the counter for 30 minutes or so before serving.

I hope you love these as much as I do! Happy Baking!