These Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes are so moist, decadent, and have the perfect balance of flavors!
If you are looking for delicious chocolate cupcakes, hang onto this recipe! Rich chocolate cupcakes are filled and swirled with creamy peanut butter buttercream. It is the perfect combination.
How to Make Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
This versatile scratch chocolate cupcake recipe is one of our favorites! You can also use it for layer cakes and can easily change up your fillings and frosting flavors for more delicious options.
You can find the full, printable recipe card further down in this post. Here is a quick rundown of our steps!
- First, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Add cupcake liners to a cupcake pan. (This recipe makes 36 cupcakes).
- In a separate bowl, add the flour, sifted cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Whisk to blend and set aside.
- In the bowl of your electric mixer, mix the softened butter on medium speed until light and creamy. (Use paddle attachment if using a stand mixer). Add the vegetable oil and vanilla. Gradually add the sugar and mix until light and fluffy, approximately 4 to 5 minutes.
- Next, add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each egg until the yellow of the yolk is blended. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- Mixing on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk to the sugar mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 additions of milk). Mix just until blended.
- Add the cup of hot coffee at this time and mix to blend. The batter will be very thin. Don't worry this is how it should be. This recipe makes 9 cups of batter (enough for 36 cupcakes)
- Line the cupcake pan with cupcake liners. Scoop about ¼ cup batter into each cupcake liner. Bake at 350℉ for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted and removed with no crumbs or just a few crumbs attached (or when the centers spring back when lightly touched).
- Pop the cupcakes out of the pan soon after removing from oven. (We do this within just a few minutes of removing).
Peanut Butter Buttercream
We used a creamy, delicious peanut butter buttercream for our filling and frosting! This amazing recipe has been our go-to for peanut butter frosting for years.
It is so easy to make- a simple combination of softened butter, creamy peanut butter, confectioners sugar, a splash of milk, and a bit of vanilla extract.
How to Add Filling to Cupcakes
Filling the cupcakes is an optional step, but we love this peanut butter frosting so much that we wanted to add just a little bit more to each cupcake!
If you are new to adding filling to cupcakes, it is so simple!
First, fill a disposable piping bag with peanut butter frosting and snip the tip away, creating a smallish hole.
Insert the filled piping bag halfway into the top of your cooled cupcake and squeeze the bag for a few seconds.
Helpful Tip: If you have a spare cupcake, you can to a test run for the filling to get a feel for how much frosting you are putting into each cupcake. Split it in half, and see how much filling is inside.
If you'd like more filling, just squeeze the bag a second longer next time. (You can also do a quick trial run on a plate. As you squeeze the piping bag, count how many seconds it takes to get the desired amount of filling).
Frosting and Decorating
We added simple swirls of peanut butter frosting to our filled, cooled chocolate cupcakes using a large 1M star piping tip.
Holding the piping bag vertically over your cupcake, start in the center and spiral outward to cover top of the cupcake.
We love an easy cupcake topper! Today, we used Reese's Thins, sliced in quarters.
Look how pretty! These are sure to make any special occasion even better ;0)
More Cakes with Peanut Butter
Keep these other recipes in mind for the peanut butter lovers in your life! They are sure to please. You can find the full listing of our favorite recipes in our Cakes & Cupcakes Section!
Peanut Butter Cupcakes (Cake Mix)
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pound Cake
Peanut Butter Chocolate Marble Cake (Cake Mix)
Enjoy the Recipe!
Thanks so much for stopping by. We hope that you enjoy the recipe! If you give these delicious cupcakes a try, we would love for you to leave a comment and photo below.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups (400g) sugar
- 4 large eggs
- ¼ cup (54g) vegetable oil
- 2 ¾ cups (322g) all purpose flour
- 1 cup (82g) unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
- 2 teaspoons (10g) baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (2g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (2g) salt
- 1 cup (220g) milk
- 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract
- 1 cup (220g) hot coffee (coffee can be instant or brewed)
- cupcake liners
Peanut Butter Buttercream
- 1 cup Creamy Peanut Butter (Don't use Natural of Reduced Fat as the consistency will not be as creamy.)
- 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
- 4 cups (460g) confectioners sugar, sifted (measure, then sift)
- ¼ cup (60g) milk (Add additional in small amounts if you'd like a thinner consistency)
- 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
Decoration
- Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups or Reese's Thins, etc. for toppers
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉.
- In a separate bowl, add the flour, sifted cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Whisk to blend and set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, beat the softened butter on medium speed until light and creamy. Add the vegetable oil and vanilla. Gradually add the sugar and mix until light and fluffy, approximately 4 to 5 minutes.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each egg just until the yellow disappears. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- Mixing on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk to the sugar mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 additions of milk)
- Add the cup of hot coffee at this time and mix to blend. The batter will be very thin. Don't worry this is how it should be. This recipe makes 9 cups of batter (enough for 36 cupcakes)
- Line the cupcake pan with cupcake liners. Scoop about ¼ cup batter into each liner. Bake at 350℉ for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted and removed with no crumbs or just a few crumbs attached (or when the centers spring back when lightly touched).
- Pop the cupcakes out of the pan soon after removing from oven. (We do this within just a few minutes of removing)
Peanut Butter Buttercream
- In the bowl of your mixer add the butter and mix on medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth. Add the peanut butter and mix until blended.
- Gradually add the powdered sugar alternately with the milk. Add vanilla. Mix on medium speed 4 to 5 minutes until smooth.
Decorating the Cupcakes
- We filled the inside of our cupcakes with frosting as well. This is optional. To do this, we inserted a filled piping bag (with tip snipped away) into the top of each cupcake and pushed it halfway down, squeezing the bag for 2-3 seconds. (You can do a trial run if you have an extra cupcake, or simply pipe for 2-3 seconds onto a plate for an idea of how much filling you will be putting in.)
- Time to frost! Frost however you like. We added basic swirls to the tops of our cupcakes using a 1M (large star) piping tip. We started in the center and spiraled outward while holding the bag vertically.
- We topped our cupcakes with sliced Reese's Cups (We used the "Thins" Reese's Cups but you could use miniature cups if you'd like!)
Notes
- Peanut butter brands labeled "Natural" that I have tried do not work as well with this recipe because the consistency isn't as smooth & creamy. I've used Jif & Peter Pan (Creamy) with good results!
- You can easily adjust the consistency of the frosting by adding a bit more milk for a thinner consistency, or more confectioners sugar for a thicker consistency.
- This recipe makes 9 cups of chocolate batter for 36 cupcakes (¼ cup for each cupcake). You can half the recipe if needed.
- If you are filling the inside of the cupcakes with frosting, you may need to increase the frosting recipe by half.
OMGosh! Yes please LOL :-) Incredible combination! Love it!