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I’m guessing you figured that Peanut Butter Love Week wouldn’t be complete without at least one cupcake recipe. I’ve whipped up an insanely rich and delicious cupcake recipe that is bursting with the peanut buttery goodness we all adore.
You’ve heard me reminisce about my father and brother and our mutual love of candy in several posts. Jared and I prefer our candy on the fruity side of the spectrum; Starbursts, Gummi Bears, and Hi-Chews. My dad is definitely more of the chocolate lover with a list of favorites that most certainly contain Reese Peanut Butter Cups, especially of the Easter egg variety. He claims they’re better than the traditional cups, and I must say that happen to wholeheartedly agree. Along with Snickers, he was and still is quite fond of placing (hiding) his Reese Easter Eggs in the freezer. He says they’re better frozen, I think he’s sneaky…little does he know everyone has been on to his game for a very long time.
I have made Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes before, but this time I they are so much better! The frosting had the perfect balance of sweet and salty and the baked in Mini Reese Cup was a little surprise of pure peanut butter bliss.
Just a fair warning to all you cake mix haters out there…I used my favorite doctored up cake mix for this recipe, but you can certainly use this as a framework and make adjustments according to whatever floats your boat.
Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes
Ingredients:
For the Cupcakes
- 1 (18.25 ounce) package devil’s food cake mix
- 1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 4 eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon instant espresso granules dissolved in 1/2 cup warm water
- 24 Reese’s Miniatures; frozen (this prevents them from disappearing into the batter)
For the Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 1.5 pounds (24 ounces or about 5.5 cups) confectioners' sugar, sifted
- 6-8 tablespoons heavy cream (if using milk, amount will be less)
Directions:
For the Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tin with paper liners or spray with non-stick cooking spray.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, eggs, vanilla and espresso water mixture. Beat for about two minutes on medium speed until well combined.
- Using a large cookie scoop, distribute the batter between 24 muffin wells; about 3 tablespoons of batter per well.
- Press one frozen Reese’s Miniature into the center of each cupcake.
- Bake in preheated oven for 18-22 minutes or until the tops of the cakes spring back when lightly touched. There will be a small sink hole in the top of the cupcakes from the Reese’s Miniatures, that’s okay - you’ll cover that with frosting. Allow cupcakes to cool inside muffin tins for about 10 minutes.
- Remove cupcakes from muffin tins and allow to fully cool on a wire rack. Once cupcakes are cool, prepare your frosting.
For the Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, cream butter and peanut butter on medium speed until fluffy. Turn your mixer down to low speed and slowly add in the confectioner’s sugar, and continue mixing until well blended.
- Add vanilla and 4 tablespoons of heavy cream. Blend on low speed until moistened. Add an additional 1 to 4 tablespoons of heavy cream until you reach the desired consistency. Beat at high speed until frosting is smooth and fluffy.
- Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes and finish with chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
Notes:
- Frosting was piped onto cupcakes using the large round tip.
- Cupcakes are best served the day they are made, but will store in a sealed container within the refrigerator for two days.
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This recipe was awesome! Everyone loved these cupcakes! I love taking a box cake mix and and doctoring it. It is just easier. Thanks so much for posting!!
Made these this morning! Yummm!!
I love how easy your recipes are but yet soo good if not better then others! Thanks for making things easy for me. Kinda hard with a 4 year old & a 10 week old! ;)
Made these over the weekend with dark chocolate Reese’s and they were a huge hit. I halved the icing recipe and it was just enough for a small schmear on each cupcake. Shredded frozen Reeses Cups for the garnish. Will make these again and again. Thank you!
Made these this past weekend, they were great! The cupcakes were so moist and I was told the frosting was some of the best I ever made! Will be using that again and again!!
Just finished making these – YUM! Didn’t use the expresso, but added a T of Starbucks Mocha powder with the water. Of course mine aren’t as pretty as yours but I’m getting there!
Hi,
I made these cupcakes the other day, and they were delicious! But my batter was incredibly THICK and not pourable and still hard to spoon into each cup! Did this happen to anyone else?! Also, the frosting recipe made enough frosting for probably 36 cupcakes!
I did enjoy them though, and the office loved them!
I made these this afternoon. Normally I don’t use boxed mixes unless I am doing a cake for my cake deocarting classes. I am a WMI, but I decided to go ahead and try this one and the cake was so moist and wonderful, instead of devils food I did with a dark chocolate, but it was really tasty. I then made the frosting, it was easy to make and made MORE then enough to frost the 24 cupcakes which was nice, so much of the time I have to worry about that. The last peanut butter frosting I had made was SOOOO rich that eating one cupcake was like a thick pb sammie, this is a fluffy, sweet but not to crazy sweet frosting. I loved having the cup inside the cupcake but I had kinda hoped it would cook out more so I may get a different filling, but all in all it was a big success with hubby. I am taking the rest to work tomorrow so we shall see how they go there. Thanks for the recipe.
Bought Reses on Sunday, made cupcakes today. They are sooooo good, and turned out as pretty as yours with the tip about how to frost them. Thanks so much. Making Snickers Cheesecake for Easter!
These look AMAZING!