Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes - Moist Chocolate cupcakes and lots of peanut butter flavor. If you like peanut butter, you will love these! Recipe and more at The Alchemist
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!