Chocolate Peanut Butter Filled Cupcakes - SRC

For this month's Secret Recipe Club, I was assigned to Kate's blog, Kitchen Trial and Error. You can bet I spent a good part of a night browsing through the many recipes on her blog and making a list that was like half a page long. I finally settled on making her recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Layer Cake. After all, it's chocolate, it's peanut butter, it's awesome! But, since I intended to give this a group of teenage girls, and I wanted it to be more portable, I opted to make them into peanut butter filled chocolate cupcakes instead.


Let me just say, the cake itself was delicious - chocolatey, fluffy, and moist. Then, you've got this peanut butter filling. I'm warning you, do NOT take a taste of it until you've finished filling the cupcakes, because you might end up eating the whole bowlful and not having any left. Drizzle the cupcakes with luscious chocolate ganache and you'll have the best chocolate peanut butter cupcake in the world. I am so glad I chose this recipe.


Oh, and in case you were wondering what happened to those little cake parts that were removed to make room for the filling . . . *mmmfff mmmff* . . . I'm not saying.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Filled Cupcakes (from Kitchen Trial and Error)

3/4 c. + 2 Tbsp. flour
1 c. sugar
6 Tbsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. buttermilk (I used vanilla flavored yogurt)
1/4 c. vegetable oil (I used melted butter)
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract (I decreased this to 1/2 tsp.)
1/2 c. brewed hot coffee (I used hot water)

Peanut Butter Filling

4 1/2 Tbsp. creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, soft
1/8 tsp. vanilla extract
4 1/2 Tbsp. powdered sugar

For the ganache:
1/2 c. heavy cream
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a separate medium bowl, mix the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until incorporated. Slowly mix in the hot coffee or water. The batter will be very thin.

Fill each muffin cup 3/4 full with batter (it'll make 10 cupcakes in all). Bake for about 20 min., or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before filling.

Combine all the ingredients for the peanut butter filling in a bowl. The mixture will be very thick.

When the cupcakes are cool, cut a small cone out of the top of each one with a serrated knife. Form the peanut butter filling into a 3/4"-1" ball and put into the space in each cupcake. Top with a little of the cake cone you cut out.

To make the ganache, bring the heavy cream to a simmer in a small saucepan. Place the chocolate in a medium heat proof bowl and pour the hot cream over it. Let sit for a minute or two before mixing. Mix until smooth.

Slowly pour the hot ganache over each cupcake, letting it naturally spread to cover the cupcakes. Let the ganache set before cutting and serving.

Makes 10 cupcakes

Note: I glazed half of the cupcakes with the ganache and decided to top the other half with chocolate buttercream frosting. Either way, it's absolutely delicious.