Chocolate Peanut Butter Filled Cupcakes

I think it’s probably pretty obvious by now that I absolutely love anything with the combination of chocolate and peanut butter.  If you search through the archives you’ll find numerous examples. I have already made a chocolate peanut butter cupcake, but this takes it a step further.

A friend and coworker is getting married in June and she’s asked me to make cupcakes for the reception. She now gets to sample every flavor of cupcake I make, and she takes one home for her fiance as well. They have already  decided on a few different flavors, but the groom is a huge peanut butter lover (my kind of man!) and requested a cupcake with some kind of peanut butter filling.

I had been trying to think of exactly what kind of filling to put in these cupcakes: peanut butter buttercream, eggless peanut butter cookie dough? After I made these peanut butter bars and couldn’t stop myself from eating the filling, I knew I had my answer. I followed the same recipe that I used for the bars, but I think next time I will cut it in half (the recipe below reflects this). I placed the filling in the refrigerator just to firm it up and make it easy to roll into balls. Once the cupcakes were finished I kept them in the refrigerator as well, but next time I would keep them out. The filling becomes too firm, and in my opinion these taste much better when the filling is at room temperature.

Looking back at my pictures I wished I would have taken one of the inside of the cupcakes, but this is what happens when you take pictures of 3 different desserts in one afternoon! I got a thumbs up to put these on the wedding menu, so there will be more pictures in the future. Enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Filled Cupcakes
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Cupcakes:
1 box devil’s food cake mix
Ingredients on box + 1 extra egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients and mix well. Pour into cupcake liners, filling them about 2/3 full. Bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until tooth pick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool completely.

Filling:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup powdered sugar

Put butter and peanut and butter in a 2 quart glass bowl. Microwave for approximately 45 seconds or until melted. Stir together. Add graham cracker crumbs and powdered sugar and mix together (will get thick). Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes to let mixture firm. Once cupcakes have cooled completely, use a small paring knife (or any other method you’d like) to remove a hole in the center of the cupcake. Discard the tops. Roll just over a tablespoon of filling into a small ball and place into center of cupcake.

Peanut Butter Buttercream:
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup creamy peanut butter (may use more or less depending on how much of a PB flavor you would like)
4 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp milk

Beat butter and vanilla with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add peanut butter and mix until combined. Add powdered sugar in one cup increments, then add milk. Frost filled cupcakes.