Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Sometimes people send me recipe suggestions. An on occasion, said recipe suggestions include what I'd deem as an insult to bakers: using a box of cake mix. I can certainly see the rationale; a lot of people have them and it makes a recipe sound a heck of a lot easier to use one of those. But a box of cake mix is literally a handful of ingredients pre-mixed, so with very few exceptions (such as those magical cookies you can make with a box of cake mix), I always start from scratch. If I ever am missing basic ingredients like flour, sugar, and salt...there's something chaotic going on in my life and my friends and family better do an intervention.

My baking obsession is so deep that I recently tossed around the idea of converting a standalone cabinet I have into a "baking cabinet". That's right; my flour and other baking items currently have their own small cabinet, but it's become too much. This is what hobbies do to your life.

Though box cakes aren't bad, the face I've experienced some out-of-this-world cakes from scratch sways me int hat direction, not to mention the fact that from scratch recipes aren't all that difficult. Cakes and cookies are easy. It's the decorating part that can be time consuming.

The idea that was passed on to me make a box cake mix, add a cream cheese & peanut butter swirl, then throw Reese's cups in there. Easy enough. I decided to take the Perfect Chocolate Cake recipe and peanut butter it up. It's SO EASY! This time, though, I skipped coffee and used hot water instead.

Instead of a large pan cake, I decided to make cupcakes. Prettier, easier to share, and did I mention prettier? I just scooped in batter and spooned in a mix of peanut butter and cream cheese.

As the original suggestion was to throw on peanut butter cups and leave frosting off, I pulsed some peanut butter cups in the food processor and sprinkled them on top.

The final touch was topping them with peanut butter frosting and a lil mini Reese's cup.

The finished cupcake was about as you'd expect: rich in flavor and oh so chocolaty. The cream cheese filling was a nice touch, and the frosting was likely my favorite part. Peanut butter and chocolate have always paired together nicely, but in this cake, the hot water recipe really takes the moistness and richness over the edge. It was everything I imagined it would be!

Perfect Chocolate Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup melted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup hot water
1 package cream cheese, softened (8 ounces)
1/2 cup peanut butter
8-10 peanut butter cups, pulsed in a food processor until crumbled (optional)

For the frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
24 mini peanut butter cups (optional)

Instructions:

To make the cupcakes, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Stir together flour, sugar, baking cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, melted butter and vanilla, then beat on medium for about 2 minutes. Stir in hot coffee, then spoon into cupcake papers. In a small bowl, mix cream cheese and peanut butter. Add a spoonful to the center of each cupcake. Top with crumbled peanut butter cups, if desired. Bake 18-22 minutes, until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

For the frosting, beat butter and peanut butter for 3-5 minutes, until fluffy. Slowly add powdered sugar and cocoa powder, mixing between additions. Add water and vanilla extract and beat until well combined. Top cooled cupcakes with frosting, then add peanut butter cup to each (if desired).