Chocolate peanut butter cupcakes made with moist chocolate cupcakes, peanut butter frosting, chocolate ganache, and Reese’s peanut butter cup! These peanut butter chocolate cupcakes are the perfect dessert!
Ingredients for Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Chocolate cupcakes
- Semisweet chocolate chips
- Dark cocoa powder: I love using Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa Powder.
- Boiling water: Combine boiling water with chocolate chips and cocoa powder.
- All-purpose flour
- Granulated sugar
- Baking soda: Leavening agent to help the cupcakes rise.
- Salt
- Vegetable oil: Or use your preferred neutral baking oil such as canola oil.
- Eggs: Large eggs, room temperature.
- Vanilla extract: Vanilla extract enhances the chocolate flavor.
Peanut butter buttercream frosting
- Unsalted butter: Room temperature for easy creaming.
- Peanut butter: Go with regular creamy peanut butter. I don’t recommend using natural peanut butter for this buttercream.
- Powdered sugar: Also known as confectioners’ sugar or icing sugar.
- Vanilla extract: For added vanilla flavor.
- Salt: Contrasts the sweetness of the frosting and enhances the peanut butter flavor.
- Heavy cream: Heavy cream or heavy whipping cream helps the buttercream whip up to be creamy.
Additional ingredients
- Semisweet chocolate chips + heavy cream: To make a chocolate ganache drizzle.
- Reese’s peanut butter cups: For decoration. For this recipe, I used six peanut butter cups and cut each in half.
Tools & Supplies for Making Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
How to Make Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Chocolate cupcakes
To make the chocolate cupcake batter, all you need is a bowl and a whisk!
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
- Stir together chocolate chips, dark cocoa powder, and boiling water. Set aside to cool.
- In a large bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking soda and salt.
- Add cooled chocolate mixture to the dry ingredients and mix.
- Add the remaining wet ingredients (vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla extract) and whisk until smooth.
- Portion cupcake batter into cupcake liners and bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove cupcakes from the pan and transfer to a wire rack to cool to room temperature.
Peanut butter buttercream frosting
To make the peanut butter buttercream frosting, you will need a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer. If you are using a stand mixer, you can use either the paddle attachment or the whisk attachment – whatever your preference is!
- Whip the room temperature butter for about 5 minutes until light, fluffy, and pale in color.
- Add in peanut butter and mix until well combined.
- Add in half of the powdered sugar and mix on the lowest speed until the sugar is combined with the butter. Then add the remaining half and continue to mix on low speed.
- Add the vanilla extract and salt and continue to mix on low until combined.
- Slowly drizzle in the heavy cream. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl after this step to ensure everything is well mixed.
- Turn the mixer to medium speed and whip the buttercream for about 3 minutes.
Chocolate ganache
Because we are only making a tiny bit of chocolate ganache to drizzle on the cupcakes, let’s just keep things easy and make it in the microwave. Simply combine chocolate chips and heavy cream in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in 15 second intervals, stirring in between each interval, until the chocolate is melted and the ganache is smooth.
How to Assemble the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Now that all the components are made, it’s time to frost these cupcakes!
- Use a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1M piping tip filled with peanut butter buttercream frosting. Swirl the buttercream onto the cooled chocolate cupcakes in an “ice cream swirl” style, swirling outward and then upward.
- If desired, chill the cupcakes for 30 minutes before adding chocolate ganache.
- Use a piping bag or squeeze bottle to drizzle on the cooled chocolate ganache over the peanut butter frosting.
- Add half of a Reese’s peanut butter cup on the side of the cupcake.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes Recipe Tips
Bake perfect cupcakes
Check out my baking tips blog post on 10 Tips for Baking Perfect Cupcakes to learn simple tips and tricks to bake the best chocolate cupcakes for this recipe!
Make perfect buttercream frosting
And while you’re at it, check out my blog post on 10 Tips for Making Perfect Buttercream to learn easy ways to make the best peanut butter buttercream frosting.
Warm chocolate ganache
Be sure the chocolate ganache is slightly warm and not hot so it does not melt the peanut butter buttercream frosting. If you want to take an extra step for insurance, chill the frosted cupcakes for 30 minutes before drizzling.
Storage and serving
Chocolate peanut butter cupcakes can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. To serve, bring the cupcakes to room temperature for the best taste and texture.
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Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Equipment
- Stand mixer or electric hand mixer
Ingredients
Chocolate Cupcakes
- ¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips
- ¼ cup dark cocoa powder
- ¾ cup boiling water
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- â…“ cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- ¾ cup creamy peanut butter
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp heavy cream
Chocolate Ganache
- ¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp heavy cream
Additional ingredients
- 6 Reese's peanut butter cups halved
Instructions
Chocolate Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a cupcake pan with 12 cupcake liners.
- In a small bowl or a glass liquid measuring cup, stir together chocolate chips, dark cocoa powder, and boiling water until the cocoa powder is dissolved. Set aside to cool slightly.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking soda, and salt.
- Pour the cooled chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk until combined.
- Add vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla extract. Whisk until combined and smooth.
- Use a large cookie scoop to portion the cupcake batter into the cupcake liners, approximately ¾ full.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until the tops of the cupcakes bounce back slightly when touched.
- Remove from the oven and cool the cupcakes in the pan for 5 minutes. Transfer the cupcakes to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.Â
Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting
- In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, add in room temperature unsalted butter. Whip the butter for 5 minutes on medium-high speed until the butter is light, fluffy, and pale in color. You will need to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl occasionally.
- Add in the creamy peanut butter and mix until well combined.
- Add one half of the powdered sugar and mix on low speed until fully combined. Add remaining powdered sugar and continue to mix on low until incorporated.
- Add vanilla extract and salt.
- Drizzle in heavy cream while mixing on low speed. Scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure the ingredients are well combined.
- Turn the speed of the mixter to medium and whip the buttercream for an additional 3 minutes.
Chocolate Ganache
- Combine chocolate chips and heavy cream in a microwave-safe bowl.
- Heat in the microwave in 15 second intervals, stirring in between until the chocolate is melted and the ganache is shiny and smooth.
Assembling the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
- Fill a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1M piping tip with peanut butter buttercream frosting. Swirl the buttercream onto the cupcake in an "ice cream swirl" style. If desired, chill cupcakes for 30 minutes.
- Use a piping bag or squeeze bottle to drizzle chocolate ganache over the peanut butter frosting.
- Add half of a Reese's peanut butter cup to the side of each buttercream swirl.
Notes
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Comments & Reviews
Looks like there’s peanut butter drizzle, is that just peanut butter or is some added? Not sure peanut butter by itself would harden.
Hi Tiffany! For these cupcakes, I made a chocolate ganache drizzle. If you would like to do a peanut butter drizzle, I recommend melting a few tablespoons of peanut butter and adding a tiny bit of coconut oil.
Hi your cupcakes look amazing ,want to know is the does the peanut butter frosting stable in on hot weather?
Hi there! Thank you! Any buttercream frosting that has butter can and will melt in hot temperatures (unfortunately).
I made this recipe for work and everyone absolutely loved it. I was told next use a whole Reese’s cup, which made me laugh. It made 12 regular sized cupcakes. I will make them again in the future. Thanks!
Thanks for making the recipe, Jen! So glad everyone at worked loved the cupcakes! I’m all about adding a whole Reese’s cup! Love that!
Tried this recipe 4 times and the buttercream is amazing. The cupcake flavor is wonderful but each time I follow the directions exact and my cupcakes come out with so many holes It looks like craters or something lol. And I usually end up with 10 instead 12. What could I be doing wrong?
Hi there! Thanks for trying the recipe. I’m not sure why there would be holes in the cupcakes. It is a very thin batter, so air pockets are less likely to form than a thick cupcake batter. Unfortunately, I also don’t know why the recipe is only making ten cupcakes for you. The liners should be about 2/3 to 3/4 full and have plenty of batter for 12 liners. Unless the liners you are using are larger than a standard cupcake liner. My apologies that I don’t have clear answers to these questions! 🙂