Shelly's Recipe

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER CUP CUPCAKES

Category: Cupcakes

1 pkg yellow or white cake mix
1 cup sour cream
3 eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
24 unwrapped mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

Chocolate Frosting:
1/4 cup melted butter (real butter, not margarine)
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 pound powdered sugar
3 tablespoons evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Peanut Butter Frosting:
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup real butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 tablespoons (or more) of milk (you can use some of the leftover evaporated milk; it’s awesome in this frosting)

Preheat oven to 350. Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine all the cupcake ingredients except for the peanut butter cups with an electric mixer on medium-low speed for 30 seconds, scraping the bowl frequently. Turn the speed to high and beat for another 3 minutes.

Fill each muffin cup about 1/2 full with batter. Top with an unwrapped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup , then fill the muffin cups with the remaining batter. Make sure the Peanut Butter Cups are covered and the cups are about 3/4 full. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until the tops are golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

While the cupcakes are cooling, prepare the frostings. For both frostings, just combine all the ingredients for each one and whip until light and fluffy, adding additional milk as needed. Frost the cupcakes with the swirled frosting.

Note: Swirling frosting:
You’ll need icing, disposable decorating bags (one for each color and then one more to fit them all into), and a large decorating tip (like this, this, or this) and a large coupler.

The most basic thing to remember is that no matter how many different colors you are using, you do not want the final bag to be too full. (For example: So if I’m using two colors, I’ll fill each color bag a little less than 1/2 full with icing. If I were using 3, I’d fill them a little less than 1/3 full, and for 4, a little less than 1/4 full.)

After you have filled your bags, flatten them out and stack them on top of each other…

and then trim 1/2 inch or so off the tip of each bag and slip them into the bag fitted with the decorating tip.

Firmly squeeze the bag until you are getting equal parts of each icing from the tip. I will say that it is a little trickier if you aare using two different types of icing ( than if you use different colors of the same icing (like Sara did). If you do use two different types of icing, try to make sure they’re roughly the same consistency before icing your cupcakes, even if it means popping a softer icing into the freezer for a few minutes.

To ice your cupcakes, hold the tip close to the top of the cupcake. Using firm, steady pressure, squeeze the icing bag, starting in the center of the cupcake and moving around the edges of the cupcake and then one more swirl on top, moving back towards the center.