Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting
These dark chocolate cupcakes are loaded with rich chocolate flavor, and topped with a light and creamy peanut butter frosting. If you are a chocolate/peanut butter fan, these are your jam!
I have a secret that I’m about to blab. It’s about me. And it’s a doozie. It’s going to rock your world…
I don’t really like cake…
Shhh…
Can you believe it? It’s the truth. Hard to fathom, with all those cakes that I decorate.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I will eat cake. But it pretty much ranks at the very, very bottom of the dessert hierarchy for me. Given options, I would choose pretty much anything over cake. Now, if you’re talking cheesecakes, flourless chocolate cakes, coffee cakes, crumb cakes, and things of that nature, well then that’s a whole different ballgame. But regular cake? Like birthday cake-cake? Meh. It’s just never really been my cup of tea.
But what I do love is frosting. And phenomenal frosting can absolutely make my day. Peanut butter or cream cheese frosting? It may as well just be Christmas. As a result, I love cupcakes because I can pile them sky-high with dreamy frosting and enjoy each and every bite. These dark chocolate cupcakes are a dream come true for anyone who is a cake or frosting lover – they are truly the best of both worlds.
These cupcakes are insanely rich and moist, and are made using the same type of method used for making brownies – melted chocolate is added to a whisked mixture of eggs and sugar, and then flour is stirred in.
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The resulting batter almost resembled a mousse; both thick and light. It creates incredibly moist cupcakes that also have a light and fluffy texture.
And the frosting. Oh the frosting. Bestill my heart.
I have been using this recipe for a couple of years now (how has it never made it on here before?!), mostly as a filling for chocolate cakes. But on top of cupcakes? Where I purposefully try to create a 2:1 frosting to cupcake ratio? AH-MAZING.
I cannot make this without taking spoonful after spoonful out of the bowl before decorating. It’s seriously irresistible.
Sometimes I’m tempted to make it to just have. Smeared on toast? Used as a dipping vessel for bananas or apples? So many possibilities. The “secret ingredient” in this frosting, just as in the Easy Vanilla Bean Buttercream, is the heavy cream. It creates a smooth and fluffy frosting that is easy to slather or pipe on.
If you are a fellow chocolate/peanut butter-aholic, you will love, love, LOVE these cupcakes. Put them on your baking list NOW!
Can’t Get Enough? More Favorite Chocolate/Peanut Butter Recipes:
- No Bake Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Cookies
- Marshmallow Crunch Brownie Bars
- Peanut Butter Cup Overload Cake
- Salted Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Buckeye Brownies
- Peanut Butter-Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips
One year ago: Sweet and Sour Chicken
Two years ago: Fresh Strawberry Tart
Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
- 2 ounces (56.7 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
- ½ cup (43 g) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- ¾ cup (93.75 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon (0.75 teaspoon) baking powder
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) table salt
- ½ cup (115 ml) sour cream
For the Peanut Butter Frosting
- 1 cup (120 g) powdered sugar
- 1 cup (258 g) creamy peanut butter
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¾ teaspoon (0.75 teaspoon) vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) kosher salt
- ⅓ cup (79.33 ml) heavy cream
Instructions
- Make the Cupcakes: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat to 350 degrees F. (If you are using a non-stick muffin pan, heat the oven to 325 degrees F.) Line standard-size muffin pan with baking cup liners.
- Combine butter, chocolate, and cocoa in medium heatproof bowl. Set bowl over saucepan containing barely simmering water; heat mixture until butter and chocolate are melted and whisk until smooth and combined. (Alternately, you can microwave the mixture at 50% power, stirring every 30 seconds until completely melted.) Set aside to cool until just warm to the touch.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs combine; add sugar, vanilla, and salt and whisk until fully incorporated. Add cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Sift one-third of flour mixture over chocolate mixture and whisk until combined; whisk in sour cream until combined, then sift remaining flour mixture over and whisk until batter is homogeneous and thick.
- Divide the batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Bake until skewer inserted into center of cupcakes comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.
- Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove the cupcakes and set on wire rack to cool to room temperature before icing, about 30 minutes.
- Make the Peanut Butter Frosting: Place the powdered sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.
- Assemble the Cupcakes: Frost the cupcakes with an offset spatula, or with a decorating tip (I used a Wilton 1M tip). Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
Notes
- Since first making these cupcakes, this chocolate cupcake recipe has become my favorite. Feel free to use either!
- If you do not have sour cream, you can substitute plain yogurt or buttermilk.
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
[photos by Whitney Wright]
Hi! I just made this recipe and the frosting is phenomenal!!! However my cupcakes all cracked on the tops when baking, not sure what may have caused this! Any ideas or tips??
Hi Angela, I’m really not sure what have caused that :(
These cupcakes are marvelous. I texture is so light a fluffy, and the icing is the perfect complement to the slightly bitter chocolate cupcake! For a topping/accessory, I made mini sugar cookies and sandwich them together with a grape jelly to add to bring the childhood flavor of PB&J back. Love, love, love!
I’ve made these a number of times (including this morning) for friends. And every time it’s a big hit. Thank you for sharing this recipe. Regards from Indonesia.
Made these today because I can’t think of a better combination of flavors-chocolate and peanuts. Yum! The frosting turned out as advertized, delicious. However, sadly, the cake part is a bit dry. Not near the toss ’em side of the spectrum but certainly not moist. I’ll keep the frosting but keep looking for the right dark chocolate cupcake recipe. Thanks for sharing nonetheless.
Hmmm…I’m really surprised yours were dry. Mine were the most moist of anything I’ve ever eaten…professional or homemade and I bake a lot. Maybe you should give it another try.
Hi all! I tried these cupcakes, and they were really good. But I had a little problem with the frosting. It was delicious to the taste, but looked awful. I don’t know what happened, but mine did not look like the frosting above. It just collapsed into ingerdients. I followed the recipe correctly. Can you help me out?
Thanks in advance,
Nora
Hi Nora, I’m not sure what you mean by “collapsed into ingredients”. If you could provide a better description, I can see if I can help. Also, did you make any substitutions to the ingredients or technique called for?
Hi Michelle,
Thank you for the fast answer. I used the same things you wrote in the recipe, the only thing I changed was the order because at first I beat the butter for a couple of seconds, the I added the peanut butter and the sugar (+salt and vanilla), then I added the milk. You wrote it should be creamy and light, mine was heavy and kinda looked like sand, so it had big chunks, and when time passed by it seemed the butter is starting to “separate” from the mixture. I posted a picture on instagram with the “thebrowneyedbaker” tag where you can see my frosting.
not milk..heavy cream..sorry
Hi Nora, If you didn’t substitute any ingredients, I can’t imagine why it would have turned out like that. You could re-try and mix according to the order in the recipe and see if that helps. It should be completely smooth before you add the cream and whip on high speed.
Hey Michelle! I actually have a really serious problem (:P). You see, whenever I’m done with my cupcakes (any sort, any kind), they look perfectly fine at first, but after an hour or two, they’ll sorta sink and become really flat and ugly, Are there any reasons why this happens and how should I solve it????
Hi Christine, Make sure your baking soda and powder are fresh, and also make sure that you do not underbake them. Cakes that are not fully cooked through in the center tend to sink as they cool.
Just made these cupcakes this morning and they were amazing! Moist cupcake with the right sweetness and the frosting was to die for. I’m totally not a sweets person but I ended up inhaling an entire cupcake in seconds. Had to stop there since I wanted to save some for others to taste the awesome flavor! Great job!
The frosting is divine. Haven’t made the cake but it’s on my list. This frosting on fudgy brownies is a decadent overload. Thanks for the recipe.
they are SOOO yummy! the frosting is delicious, and the cake is awesome! really good. must taste them.
Hi, I was just curious if the same recipe can be used to bake a cake? If so, what size pan would accommodate for the recipe of 12 cupcakes? Thank you and I hope to hear back soon. :)
Hi Jessica, I have not used it for a cake, but some other readers have commented that they’ve done so. You will need to double the recipe, and that will give you enough batter for a two-layer 8″ or 9″ cake, or a 9×13-inch cake.
Hi! I’m going to try to bake this tomorrow. because it totally looks delicious and I have read some of the comments above that it tasted great. So if it does taste great i will make this in our family gathering. So excited! :D
Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe. In the past week, I’ve made a batch with peanut butter frosting for my 8th grade class. I also made a batch that I filled with chocolate buttercream and topped with mocha buttercream and cookie crumbs to make it a Starbucks Cookie Crumble Frappuccino! Both times, I’ve been missing bittersweet chocolate, so I have subbed in half semi-sweet and half unsweetened and it has worked great.
Finally made these yesterday, now I wonder why it took me so long! Loved both the cupcake and the frosting, they seem made for each other
I made these cupcakes last night for a pot luck we had at work today. The batter for the cakes was absolutely delicious! But like some other commenters, the cakes themselves turned out a little dry. Perhaps my oven runs hot, as this tends to happen more often than desired. As far as the peanut butter frosting goes… that stuff is to DIE for! I had tons left over after frosting the cupcakes, so my boyfriend spread some between graham crackers and dipped apple slices in it to help me get rid of it. I must say, though, the frosting was better last night than it was today. It seemed to have more of a peanut butter richness to it today, rather than the light, fluffy, sweet goodness it was last night. It was still tasty, I was just surprised it was so different (I am thinking it’s because the oil from the peanut butter separated a little bit; there were little oily pools around the bottom of the frosting mountains.) Despite a couple bumps in this chocolate-peanut-buttery road, I would absolutely make these cupcakes again! And I’ll use that frosting for many other recipes; I’ll just make sure to use it the same day.
To impress my colleagues even more, I dipped my cupcakes in a homemade dark chocolate ganache and let cool before adding the PB frosting. They were beautiful!
Hi Michelle,
Love, love, love your website and these Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with the devine Peanut Butter Frosting are just perfect! Thanks for this wonderful recipe, made my day :).
I made them now twice and they came out just right every time. Only problem is, they do not last long, first batch didn’t even leave the house.
I followed the recipe but only had Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder, used whipping cream instead of heavy cream, and normal salt. Am afraid I can not say at what temperature I baked them. Sounds funny, I know. So, I am living in China and am using a counter top toaster oven, I inherited it from the former tenant and when I cleaned it after moving in, I accidentally cleaned away all the marks and dots on the temperature and program control knobs. Yup.
Thanks Michelle, great work!
The cupcakes are outstanding. they are the best I have ever made, I felt so lucky to find your page. One question, my frosting does not look like yours, it wasn’t smooth and so when I tried to pipe onto cupcakes, it was not pretty :-(
Should I try to whip the cream first and then add the peanut butter mixture later so I can get a smoother frosting? Regardless of bad looking frosting today, I love this recipe. Thanks!
Hi Jenny, By not smooth, do you mean lumpy? Perhaps try sifting your powdered sugar next time. Also, make sure that you don’t use natural peanut butter – it has too much oil for frostings.
Yes It’s a bit lumpy and runny. When I pipe it couldnt keep the shape. I will try sifting the sugar next time. I did use creamy butter. Thanks for your answer.
hi again………frosting went together easily. now — will the frosting set? or crust? do they have to be refrigerated til serving? hopefully the weather will stay cool!!! ————— it tastes wonderful! thank you
Hi Sue, You do not need to refrigerate unless your home is very, very warm with no air conditioning.
Can I make the frosting Thursday to serve Sat pm? Can it be refrigerated, then brought up to room temp to pipe on cupcakes on Friday? thanks…sue
Hi Sue, Yes, you could definitely make the frosting on Thursday and refrigerate it until Saturday. You will need to re-whip it, though; just bringing it to room temperature probably won’t get it to the consistency you’ll need to pipe it.
Can I use cake flour in this recipe instead of all purpose flour? Do you think that would make them lighter and moist?
Hi Debbie, These cupcakes are very moist; I don’t think you need to replace any flour. You could try it, but I can’t guarantee how they’ll turn out.
Hi, Michelle. I made these cupcakes with your chocolate buttercream frosting and they are delicious. The cupcakes were a little too ‘dark chocolately” for my kids (which is fine by me since I had to ‘finish’ their cupcakes for them), but I’m wondering if I substituted the Bittersweet chocolate with Semi-sweet, would that make them a little sweeter and work okay? I realize I could use another recipe, but I do love the texture of these cupcakes and they came out beautiful. What do you think?
Hi Dee, You could definitely substitute semisweet chocolate for the bittersweet, I think it would work just fine. Hopefully your kids like those better! :)
Tried these with the kids today – taste great and look great too – really stand out, thanks!
Is kosher salt really necessary in frosting? both kosher and regular table salt should fully dissolve in the whipping process and the main difference is grain size
of course measured by volume table salt uses about half the amount of space so the amount of table salt added should be reduced by half, I just don’t get why the resipie called for kosher salt specifically, is there a reason?
You can substitute table salt for kosher salt if you don’t wish to use it; just be sure to use only 1/2 the amount. The frosting is based on an Ina Garten recipe, and in most of her recipes she calls for kosher salt; probably a personal preference.
love the pb icing , i use the same recipe on my chocalte cakes and cupcakes !
Planning to make the frosting for cupcakes for my sons’ birthday party this weekend. I am hoping to make all the cupcakes on Friday for the party Saturday. Will they need to be refrigerated because of the heavy cream, or will they be okay at room temperature?
Hi Andrea, They will be just fine left out at room temperature. Enjoy and happy birthday to your son!
ok out overnight? or just close to party time? And thanks! It’ll be a fun time- celebrating my boys turning 4, 2 and 1!!!
Hi Andrea, Overnight is fine. I’ve left them out for a couple of days. Enjoy! :)
cool! Thanks so much! can’t wait to try it! Cupcakes in the oven right now so I can frost tomorrow :)
Made these yesterday, they came out so good, everyone went back for seconds. Cannot wait to make them again :D
This is just tempting…I have just made this….successfully done! Thanks for sharing reciepe!
I am curious, could the frosting be made with PB2 (the powdered peanut butter) to make it lower in calories (I know, silly question when I am about to make cupcakes but any calorie counts, right!? ;) ) And if so, what would you suggest the substitution? Could I simply substitute the PB2 for some of the powdered sugar? Or would the consistency not be right? I guess I may have to experiment :)
Hi Angel, I have never heard of powdered peanut butter. You could not substitute for the peanut butter or the texture will turn out very differently. You could try substituting for some of the powdered sugar, but you’ll need to replace the peanut butter with butter. Which, in that case, you may as well just use the peanut butter if all you’re trying to do is cut calories ;-)
True, True. PB2 is powdered peanut butter, you just add a little olive oil or water to it to get the consistency you want. I am excited to make these as a “cheat treat” for me and my team tomorrow. We are health nuts at heart but who doesn’t love a good cupcake ;) Question: If I made these into mini cupcakes, how long would you suggest baking them for?
Thanks for your amazing recipe, I’ll let you know how everyone likes it :) I am sure I will be writing it down all day!
Hi Angel, For mini cupcakes, I would start checking around 8 minutes (although they may take longer than that), just to be sure you don’t overbake them.
They took 12 minutes. But these were DELICIOUS!!! Everyone loved them, my best friend’s husband ate SIX!! LOL! I used the ganache recipe from the irish car bomb cupcakes ( minus the whiskey, to my husband’s dismay) to fill the full size ones and it was amazing!!! I will definitely be using this recipe again!
Hello may I ask if the peanut butter frosting freeze well? Because I have leftover frosting and was wondering if it can be rewhipped so that I am able to use it another time? Thanks :)
Hi Sarah, I have never frozen frosting; I’m not sure that the texture would remain in tact, but you can certainly give it a try! If you do, I would thaw it in the refrigerator, and then re-whip it.
I really want to make these, but I want to get the exact ingredients, so there’s no chance of them turning out less-than-best. Question! I’m a bit confused about the dutch processed cocoa, if it’s blended like this product, http://www.amazon.com/Hersheys-Cocoa-Special-Dark-8-Ounce/dp/B001EQ4SHK/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1365531192&sr=8-10&keywords=dutch+cocoa can it be used? But that’s a dark blend….not sure!
Sorry if this has been asked earlier! They look scrumptious, I want to make them this Sunday for a party!
Thanks so much!
Hi Maxine, I do know that a lot of people use Hershey’s Special Dark for their Dutch-process cocoa. I’ve never used it, so I can’t speak to its flavor, but I think you should be fine using that. Enjoy!
I substituted Dutch processed cocoa with unsweetened cocoa only to read later that if you’re to do that, there’s a science to it. I do hope they turn out fine!
Another thing I read was that dutch-processed cocoa is used in recipes that use baking powder in place of baking soda and if you needed to sub with unsweetened cocoa powder you needed three tbspns of unsweetened cocoa plus 1/8th tspn of baking soda for every ounce of dutch processed cocoa. But this already has baking soda sooooo … do we do the same here?
Thanks!!
I have never used unsweetened cocoa in place of Dutch-process cocoa, so unfortunately I can’t tell you if it will work or not. I have seen many recipes mention that you can substitute one for the other without issue.
I couldn’t have these because I have a really upset stomach but I’ve been told they’re super moist and melt in your mouth so I’m assuming it worked! I do hope I can try these myself! Thanks for the quick reply! I do love your blog! And I have never ever liked cake. Unless it’s cheesecake. :)