Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

These cupcakes are a peanut butter and chocolate lovers dream!   There are four main components to these delectable little cakes, starting out with a moist chocolate cupcake base sprinkled with chocolate chips. Next comes an absolutely dreamy peanut butter frosting, a drizzle of milk chocolate ganache, and a Reese's Peanut Butter cup to top it off. Holy Moly. These are SO good!

My favorite part of these cupcakes has to be the peanut butter frosting.  It is just so delicious! It's packs a big peanut butter punch while still being fluffy and just sweet enough without being overly sweet.  

I made these for Danny's 7th birthday with his favorite candy bar in mind and he LOVED them!  He also insisted that he get to help by unwrapping and placing the Reese's on the top of the cupcakes, so if they look a little skewed that's why ;).  

Any type of Reese's will work here, or you can leave them off all together.  We used Peanut Butter Lovers for these.  

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes 

Instructions:

Bake Cupcakes as directed.  Place a large piece of parchment paper or foil under a wire cooling rack, if available.  While cupcakes are baking, make the frosting.  Place cupcakes on cooling rack and allow to cool completely.  Make ganache and allow it to cool to room temperature.

Scoop frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large circle tip (Wilton 2A), or a half-gallon ziplock bag with a small corner cut off.  An easy way to do this is to fit the bag into a large cup or blender bottle with the top of the bag around the outside of the cup.  

Press the frosting down to one corner of the bag until it comes just to the tip.  Applying even pressure, frost the cupcakes in a spiral, starting in the middle to make a large circle.  Repeat with a slightly smaller circle on top.

Add ganache to a ziplock bag, don't cut the corner off till you are ready to drizzle.  Twist the top of the bag shut and point the corner upwards.  Snip a small corner off of the top and then quickly drizzle the ganache over the cupcakes.  You can do this any way you like, but I did a straight line, went back on that line to the middle, rotated a bit and did another line, and so on in a circular shape, kind of like the lines on a clock.  

Top with a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

Enjoy! 

Brick Street Chocolate Cupcakes

modified from Through Her Looking Glass

makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:
1 1/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup butter room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 large eggs
1 2/3 cups flour
2/3 cup baking cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup instant chocolate pudding mix not made into pudding, just the dry mix
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2/3 cup milk chocolate chips

Instructions:

Preheat regular, conventional oven to 350°.
Beat sugar, butter & vanilla in large bowl.
Beat in eggs.
Mix in cake flour, baking cocoa, soda, salt, chocolate pudding and buttermilk.
Stir in semi-sweet chocolate chips.
Place cupcake papers in muffin tins.
Drop batter - a generous tablespoon and a half for each cupcake - into paper lined muffin tins, filling muffin cups about halfway.

*I like to use a muffin scoop for this! 

CONVENTIONAL Oven: Bake in a 350° conventional oven for 8 minutes. Turn oven down to 325° and bake an additional 8 minutes (or until cake tester in the middle comes out clean.)

CONVECTION Oven: Bake in a 350° convection oven for 16 minutes or until cake tester in the middle comes out clean.

Peanut Butter Frosting

10 TBSP Butter, Room Temp

2 cups Creamy Peanut Butter

4 cups powdered sugar

6 TSP Heavy Cream

2 tsp vanilla

With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar, heavy cream, vanilla extract, and salt with the mixer running on low. Increase to high speed and beat for 3 full minutes. Add up to 1/4 cup more confectioners’ sugar if frosting is too thin or another Tablespoon of cream if frosting is too thick.

Milk Chocolate Ganache

1 cup milk chocolate chips

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Microwave cream on high for about 30 seconds or until cream is hot, but not boiling.  Pour in chocolate chips and stir until chocolate is completely melted and smooth, adding another 15 seconds in the microwave if needed.  Let cool to room temp. 

Place a wire cooling rack (if you have one) over a large piece of parchment paper or foil.  Allow cupcakes to cool to room temperature on the rack.  While they are cooling, make the peanut butter frosting.  Scoop frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large circle tip (Wilton 2A)