Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Like a Reese’s but WAY better.
Texture: Again this cupcake reminds me of a candy bar – the smooth peanut butter filling, fudge-y ganache, and crunchy peanuts.
Ease: Really nothing difficult, just a little messy. The result is so worth it, though.
Appearance: I think these cupcakes are adorable topped chocolate and peanuts. And a luscious surprise is waiting inside!
Pros: Combines two of my favorite things – chocolate and peanut butter!
Cons: None, except the dishes. But that’s nearly impossible to avoid.
Would I make this again? Yes.
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Peanut Butter Stuffed Devil’s Food Cupcakes are just like a Reese’s candy bar but in delicious, adorable cupcake form.
Yes. This is my second recipe for stuffed cupcakes in less than a month. The last one for chocolate-stuffed red velvet cupcakes was so fun and scrumptious I had to do it again. These cupcakes might even be better. The peanut butter filling is to die for. Try not to lick it all out of the bowl before filling your cupcakes. Same with the chocolate ganache topping. It’s pretty hard to resist licking that spoon. Alright. Enough talk about licking, let’s get to the recipe.
Peanut Butter Stuffed Devil’s Food Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
- 1 1/4 cups cake flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup hot strong coffee
For the filling:
- 8 tablespoons (1/2 cup, 1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup confections’ sugar
For the ganache topping:
- 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup roasted peanuts, chopped
Instructions
For the cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line muffin tins with 18 paper liners.
- Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar on high speed until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, until incorporated. Continue beating at medium-high speed until mixture is light and fluffy, about 6 more minutes. On low speed, add a 1/3 of the flour mixture. Beat in buttermilk and vanilla, then another 1/3 of flour mixture. Beat in coffee then remaining flour until combined. Divide batter evenly between muffin tins, filling each cup a little more than halfway. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the centers spring back slightly when pressed. Allow to cool completely on wire racks.
For the filling:
- In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter and peanut butter until combined. On low speed add the sugar. Increase speed to high and beat for 3-5 minutes, until smooth and light. Spoon the filling into a pastry bag fitted with a medium plain tip. Insert tip into the center of each cooled cupcake and fill with about 1 tablespoon of peanut butter filling.
For the ganache:
- Place the chocolate in a medium, heat-proof bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan until scalding then pour over chocolate. Let sit 1 minute then stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Let ganache stand at room temperature for 10 minutes, or until thick but still pourable. Dip each cupcake into ganache then sprinkle with chopped peanuts. Transfer to the refrigerator for 20 minutes to set. Store cupcakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
I used dark instead of semisweet in the ganache and they were AMAZING! These are the best cupcakes I have ever made.
These came out strange. I did everything exactly as the recipe said to, but the cupcakes came out flat with little holes and the top kind of split from the rest. I’m making these for my boss’ birthday and I’m so disappointed.
I’m sorry to hear you had issues, Jennifer! It’s so frustrating when that happens, especially for such a special occasion. Just to verify, did you substitute any ingredients? Flat cupcakes can happen for so many reasons, the main being due to expired baking soda/powder, overfilling the pan, overmixing the batter, too high or low of oven temperature, or opening and closing the oven door. I wish I could help more and pinpoint exactly what went wrong, but it’s hard to do that without having baked alongside you. I hope you give this recipe another try, I’d love for you to enjoy them the way they’re meant to be!
Thanks. I bake almost daily. I made another cupcake recipe the day before I made these, and they were perfect. I made macarons 3 days before and they were perfect. I made a cake a week ago and that was perfect as well.
I’m sure this would have been good, but it was all over the oven. I read comments thinking the soda was mistaken for powder but I reread it a few times and no one commented. It has to be that! Someone should fix it or maybe my baking soda just went crazy.
I’m so sorry to hear that your cupcakes didn’t turn out, Annette! We haven’t experienced this issue! This recipe does call for baking soda and baking powder. Did you substitute any ingredients? Do you bake at a higher altitude? Hot oven temperature can also be a factor, so do you have an oven thermometer? If your oven runs hot, the outside of the cupcakes will bake faster than the inside, causing the batter to explode. I’d love to help figure out what happened as these cupcakes are delicious and I want you to be able to enjoy them!
These are the best cupcakes EVER. They are to die for. Made them for my wife as a birthday cupcake (she asked for peanut butter cupcakes in lieu of a birthday cake. She’s still raving about them.
They are fabulous! Actually I used a Devil’s Food cake mix cuz I’m short on time for a quick baked good . . . But I plan to make your cake from scratch next time cuz I like total homemade and these sound delicious. I added the chopped Reese’s cups instead of plain nuts cuz . . . well . . . DUH! LOL
These cupcakes look SO delicious. Can’t wait to try the recipe!
For Angela, I know your comment was from almost two years ago, but I wanted to offer a small tip, which you may have already considered.
I made a rich sour cream chocolate cake for Mother’s Day that called for hot strong coffee. I don’t drink it very often, and my husband loathes it, so we don’t have a coffeemaker either. I didn’t wanna just use instant, so I stopped by the Starbucks at the grocery store after I’d finished shopping and picked up a tall Americano, black.
I didn’t use it right while it was originally hot, so I warmed it back up on the stove.
It worked great! I didn’t have to settle for an instant coffee that I’d be stuck with leftover packets of that probably would never be drunk, and the cake was fantastic!. 😀
This recipe looks awesome! Could you use All Purpose Flour instead of Cake Flour?
I made these last weekend for a party I was having and couldn’t have been happier with the way they turned out! There was way more filling than I needed for one batch of cupcakes, but I’m not one to complain about having an excuse to make more 😀
Yay!
I don’t drink coffee do you think I could just double the buttermilk?
Thanks
Angela
You’d be better off substituting the coffee with boiling water.
I was pushed for time so used a cake mix. Love the filling and the frosting had enough of both to make a second batch! A real winner!!
Thank you for the recipe. The cupcakes look delicious.
My husband LOVES peanut butter, I can't wait to try these!! thank you so much for the wonderful post 🙂