Decadent Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cupcakes!

These cupcakes are h-e-a-v-e-n-l-y.  I used dark chocolate cocoa for the batter, which is insanely moist and delicious.  I'm not gonna lie, these are in no way, shape, or form healthy.  Sometimes, you kinda want something candy-like and delicious in cake form though, and this satisfies that exact craving!  I was contemplating adding chopped, unsalted peanuts to the top of it, but I completely forgot- no matter, these are delicious with or without.

Cupcake Batter Recipe:
2 cups all purpose or cake flour
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 3/4 cups water
1/2 cups + 3 tablespoons oil
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon cocoa

                                                     Delicious rich batter
Oven 350

In a bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa.  Add water, oil, and vanilla.  Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed until combined.  Beat on high speed for two minutes.  Add the eggs and beat for two more minutes.
Pour the batter into prepared muffin tins, filling the cups 3/4 of the way full.  Bake for 25 minutes, or until done.

                                       Cupcakes cooling on wire sheets

Using a sharp knife, cut out cones from the middle of the cupcakes, being sure not to pierce the bottom.  You won't be using the cake centers, so go ahead and eat them (I would post a picture of this, but the centers were eaten when I wasn't looking).

Using a ziplock bag with a hole cut out (or you know, an actual pastry bag with a cool metal tip), pipe in the peanut butter buttercream.

Peanut Butter Buttercream Recipe:

1/3 cup natural peanut butter (crunchy works best, but smooth is fine too)
1/2 cup butter, softened
6 tablespoons powdered sugar

Once you've filled the cupcakes, go ahead and ice them with the chocolate buttercream.  Unlike the cupcake batter, I used plain cocoa instead of dark chocolate.  The frosting is rich enough without adding the dark chocolate.

Chocolate Buttercream

1/3 cup butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup chocolate milk, plus more if necessary
2 teaspoons vanilla

In a bowl, beat the butter until fluffy, adding the cocoa and sugar in batches.  Add the milk and vanilla as necessary to make it smooth and creamy.

                                                    Covered in Chocolate!

                              Sliced in half- check out all that peanut butter filling!!

If this doesn't make you feel like you're eating a Reese's in cake form, then I don't know what will!  If you try this, let me know how it goes:)

Until next time,

Ashley