Sunday, June 28, 2009

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Whipped Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting



Whew! Long title! My best friend and her mom found these cupcakes on the Good Housekeeping website and suggested I make them. My husband came home that day and mentioned that his coworker was having a party on Saturday - perfect! The GH recipe calls for a plain buttercream frosting, but thought it needed a little something more. I asked around and got some suggestions, and when someone said whipped peanut butter cream cheese frosting, I was SOLD!

I did a little googling to get a general idea of proportions, then threw some together for a wonderfully creamy, cream cheese-y, peanut buttery delight! Despite overbaking them a tad, the cupcakes were delicious and not overwhelming on either the chocolate or peanut butter flavor. I did, however, get a pocket of air above the peanut butter ball inside each one. I remedied this by poking through the top of the cupcake with the decorating tip, filling that space with frosting, then piping the swirls on top.







Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Whipped Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Cupcake recipe from Good Housekeeping
Yield: 24 cupcakes

For the filling and cupcakes:
~2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
~1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
~10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
~1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
~1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
~3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
~1 teaspoon baking soda
~1/2 teaspoon salt
~1 cup sour cream
~2 tablespoons milk
~1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
~2 large eggs

For the frosting:
~8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
~4 tablespoons butter, softened
~1/2 cup peanut butter
~3 1/4 cups powdered sugar
~1 cup cool whip

1. Prepare Filling: In bowl, with mixer on medium speed, mix confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, 2 tablespoons butter, and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla until blended. Shape mixture into 24 balls using heaping measuring teaspoons. (Balls will be sticky and don't need to be perfectly shaped.) Place balls on waxed paper-lined cookie sheet; set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 standard muffin-pan cups with fluted paper liners.

3. Prepare Cupcakes: On waxed paper, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. In 2-cup liquid measuring cup, mix sour cream, milk, and remaining vanilla; set aside. In large bowl, with mixer on low speed, beat granulated sugar and remaining 8 tablespoons butter just until blended. Increase speed to high; beat 1 minute. Reduce speed to low; add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat 1 to 2 minutes more or until light and fluffy. Add flour mixture alternately with sour cream mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat just until ingredients are combined, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula.

4. Spoon 1 heaping measuring tablespoon batter into each muffin-pan cup. Drop 1 peanut butter ball in center of each cup and top with another heaping tablespoon batter. Bake cupcakes 25 to 28 minutes or until toothpick inserted in cupcake comes out clean. (I baked mine for 23 minutes and they were over-done, so watch them carefully!) Immediately remove cupcakes from pans and cool completely on wire rack.

5. When cupcakes are cool, prepare frosting: In large bowl, with mixer on medium-low speed, beat butter, cream cheese, and peanut butter until smooth and blended. Add powdered sugar slowly, incorporating fully after each addition. Add cool whip and beat until smooth and creamy. Frosts cupcakes.

25 comments:

  1. Those look amazing! I love the sounds of that peanut butter cream cheese icing too. I am sure that peanut butter center is heaven.

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  2. Those are absolutely gorgeous! I've made chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, but the peanut butter center just takes them to a whole new level!

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  3. AHHH THESE LOOK SO GOOD!!! I just made a chocolate cake yesterday with peanut butter frosting...great combo!

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  4. Wow, your cupcakes look so amazing with those PB centers - I am drooling!

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  5. i absolutely love chocolate cake and peanut butter icing together. they look amazing!

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  6. I cannot resist the draw of chocolate & peanut butter! These look so good!!

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  7. Oh my goodness! Given my weakness for all things peanut butter and chocolate, you've totally sold me. YUM! And your pictures are awesome!

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  8. I love the little peanut butter surprise in the middle - yum!

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  9. These look so incredibly good! Just one question, though: I can't get Cool Whip over here in Germany. Do you think I could use stabilized whipped cream instead? If not, what would you suggest?

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  10. THESE. ARE. AWESOME!!

    That is all. ;)

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  11. Julie - you can definitely use whipped cream instead! Most recipes I saw called for 1.5 cups of cream, I just decided to use cool whip instead. :-)

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  12. YUM! I love peanut butter frosting, but the peanut butter on the middle is even better!

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  13. So, I tried these using whipped cream and I just wanted to tell you they are amazing. My boyfriend usually hates anything chocolate and not only did he eat 5 of them in one day, he also begged me to make them again. I've made them twice in only 3 days and I have a feeling I'll be making them quite often in the future. Thanks a lot for the recipe.

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  14. These are so amazing delicious, instead of making the cake from scratch I used chocolate fudge cake mix. AMAZING..... is all I can say AMAZING thank you so much for sharing this

    shelley

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  15. do they have to be stored in the fridge?

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  16. Once frosted, the cupcakes should be stored in the fridge.

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  17. my frosting turned out runny

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  18. Hi,
    These look totally great. I have a question though, i am not able to get cool whip here so any suggestions on what i can substitute?
    Thanks!

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  19. If the frosting turned out runny, you could add a little more powdered sugar to help stiffen it up, or maybe chill it for a while in the fridge.

    Whipped cream can be used in place of the cool whip.

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  20. I just finished making these for a graduation party, and I have never tasted better icing in my life! I used whipped cream instead of cool whip because I had it on hand, and it came out perfectly. Thanks so much for the recipe!

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  21. Mmm, thank you so very much for sharing this recipe! I cannot wait to try these cupcakes!
    Thanks again!

    Cheers!

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  22. These cupcakes were so worth it!!! The icing is amazing - I now call them OMG cupcakes!!

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  23. Made these tonight, they are delish!! Love the peanut butter in the middle. Had trouble with the frosting, was real runny, and adding more conf. sugar didnt help with the consistency. I ended up using a different Peanut butter frosting recipe which worked great. Thanks for sharing this recipe.

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  24. I made the frosting from this recipe and used a box mix to make mini cupcakes for a birthday. I topped them with a mini Reese peanut butter cup. They got rave reviews. This frosting is ridiculously amazing.

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