Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate Cheesecake Frosting

Nothing goes better together then peanut butter and chocolate. It's a seriously irresistible combination. These are not just peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate cheesecake frosting. These are peanut butter peanut butter chip cupcakes with dark chocolate cheesecake frosting. Is your mouth filling up with saliva like mine? It better be. Well, unless you are allergic to peanuts or chocolate. Then I'd understand why you wouldn't be salivating. Other then that, you should be drooling by this point.

I must admit, the first batch of these did not turn out so well. In fact, they were hard as rocks. The recpie said to bake for 15-20 minutes, but when I checked at 13 minutes, they were still way wiggly and the tester was not coming out clean. Anytime I am baking, I always start checking for doneness about 3 -5 minutes prior to the recommended cooking time. You just never know how things will cook and you don't want burnt or dry cupcakes! At 15 minutes there were still not done and even at 20 they were still coming out not looking right. What is going on? I took them out and once they cooled, I sampled just to make sure they were okay. The flavor was totally there, but they were rock hard and dry (cough, cough). Luckily I had enough ingredients for another batch and tried again, this time taking them out right at 15 minutes. That seemed to do the trick once they cooled.

Then came the frosting. OH. MY. GOD. I could eat this frosting straight out of the bowl. You know, sit out the couch with a big bowl of frosting and just go to town. No, I wouldn't really do that, but boy does it sound heavenly. I don't know if was the dark chocolate or the cheesecaky (is this even a word? If not, it totally should be) consistency, but it was so SO good and the perfect paring for these cupcakes. Topped of with some gold sprinkles and they were good to go (I like how these sprinkles add a crunchy layer to it all)!

reese's pb chips. seriously so good you could forget the recipe and just eat these straight from the bag.

dark chocolate cocoa powder may be hard to find (took me three stores to find it!). If you can't, you can substitute regular cocoa powder.

creaming sugar, peanut butter and butter.

steaming hot out of the oven.

in goes the dark chocolate cocoa powder!

cupcakes done and all sparkly!

 

 

 

Peanut Butter Cupcakes (full recipe from www.howsweeteats.com)

makes about 12 cupcakes

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup sugar

2 whole eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup milk

3/4 cup peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cream butter and peanut butter together in the bowl of an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add sugar and eggs and beat together until fluffy. Add vanilla and mix for another minute or so. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Add half of the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Add the milk. Once mixed, add remaining dry ingredients. Fold in peanut butter morsels. Pour into cupcake tins and fill 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 15 minutes at 350. Let cool, then frost.

Chocolate Cheesecake Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 block cream cheese (8 ounces), softened

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

4 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup dark cocoa powder

1-2 tablespoons milk, if needed

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add in vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time and add cocoa powder, increasing the speed to mix. If the frosting it a bit too thick, add milk 1 teaspoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached.  If it is too thin, add additional sugar gradually. Frost cupcakes once cooled. Top with sprinkles. 

These cupcakes got rave reviews by the family, although I still thought they were a little on the dry side. The flavors were so out of this world delicious, that I will be making these again soon. Although, next time I will only bake them for 13 minutes. My hunch is that the tester is still coming out moist due to the peanut butter chips and is not a good indicator of doneness. If you love peanut butter and chocolate as much as I do, you have got to try these out. Whatever you do, just try not to eat all the frosting before you actually frost the cupcakes!