Surprise Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes are moist dark chocolate cupcakes filled with a surprise and topped with silky peanut butter buttercream!
Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes
Last night we celebrated my mom’s birthday, and I was put in charge of dessert. She wanted Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes, her favorite, now, of course, I couldn’t make just a simple Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes, I needed to make it more fun than that. It was the perfect opportunity to try out the surprise cake technique I’ve been seeing all over Pinterest, only in a cupcake.
Chocolate and Peanut Butter are on of my favorite cake/cupcake flavor combos, though isn’t it everyone’s? There’s just something about a moist chocolate cake topped with silky peanut butter buttercream. Did I mention that Reese’s cup on top? Yeah, that makes it pretty good too!
Oh, but the surprise, yeah, that’s the best part! I cored out the cupcakes and filled them with mini Reese’s Pieces.
Awesome, right?
The Reese’s Pieces surprise was a lot of fun, and it would have been an actual surprise if Matt hadn’t told everyone. The Reese’s Pieces added great texture and I’ll never make Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes without them again!
SO GOOD!
Plus that creamy peanut butter frosting is pretty damn good too!
So what are you waiting for? Whip up a batch, grab a gallon of milk, and enjoy!
Chocolate & Peanut Butter Surprise Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcake:
- 1 Box Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
- 3.9 oz. Package Jell-O Instant Chocolate Pudding
- 4 Eggs
- 1 cup Sour Cream
- 3/4 cup Vegetable Oil
- 1/2 cup Milk
- 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
- 1/4 tsp Sea Salt
- 1 1/2 cup Mini Chocolate Chips
- 1 bag Mini Reese's Pieces
- 24 bag Mini Reese's Cups
Frosting:
Instructions
Cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Line cupcake pan.
- Combine all ingredients in a stand mixer and beat until combined.
- Fill cupcake liners 1/2 - 3/4 full.
- Reduce heat to 350 F.
- Bake for 18-22 minutes until toothpick comes clean.
- Remove from oven and move cupcakes to cooling racks to finish cooling.
- Use a cupcake corer to core the cupcakes, fill the holes with mini Reese's Pieces.
Frosting:
- Cream Butter using a paddle attachment.
- Add vanilla and peanut butter and beat until well mixed.
- Add confectioners' sugar a cup at a time, alternating with heavy cream.
- Whip on medium high speed for 2-3 minutes until frosting is light and fluffy.
- Pipe frosting onto cupcakes.
- Top each cupcake with a Reese's cup.
- For added wow, Use a small frosting tip to frost the Reese's cup!
Nutrition
Jay says
June 7, 2016 at 12:08 pmHi! I was wondering if adding the mini choc chips and reeses pieces to the cake batter melts them during the baking process? I’m always nervous of something “hard” being inside when you’re not expecting it. Making these tonight for a dear gf!
Rebecca says
June 7, 2016 at 12:11 pmIt doesn’t melt the chocolate chips in a way that makes them gooey, but it does soften them up so it won’t be like hard bits in the cake. The reese’s pieces are the same texture as straight out of the package since they are put inside the cupcakes after baking.
Ashley says
September 22, 2016 at 8:53 pmWhen I baked these up (I was so excited for them!) and let them cool, they fell in the middle. They still were like a molten lava cake more than a cupcake. I baked them for 20 mins and the toothpick came out clean. Could it be that they needed more baking time?
Rebecca says
September 23, 2016 at 11:08 amHi Ashley, I’m sorry to hear that these didn’t turn out for you. The base cupcakes recipe is the one I make most often of all my recipes and I’ve never had this issue. It’s weird that the toothpick came clean yet they were molten on the inside. Usually, 18-22 minutes should bake them perfectly.
Mary says
June 13, 2018 at 7:21 amWhat piping tip did you use on the mini peanut butter cup?
Rebecca Hubbell says
June 14, 2018 at 10:41 amHi Mary, I used a small star tip similar to the one you see in this set that’s in the middle row and second from the left: https://amzn.to/2MsB55R
Kim says
May 13, 2019 at 7:54 pmHi there —
Just reading over the recipe and am curious as to whether you bake the cupcakes for any time at 375 prior to lowering the heat to 350? If not, just wondering what the temperature change does for these 🙂
Rebecca Hubbell says
May 14, 2019 at 9:23 amHi Kim, you lower the temperature as soon as you put the cupcakes in the oven, so the oven temperature is still 375 when you put it in but set at 350. The initial shock of the high temp helps give the cupcakes a nice dome top and rise, but is too hot to bake the cupcakes at for the whole time.