Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

These cupcakes don’t actually have peanut butter cups in them. Instead, they are cupcakes topped with a peanut butter cup-like swirl of buttercream frosting encased in a shell of chocolate. Yummy! The original recipe used a yellow-cake cupcake, but I really wanted to keep with the peanut-butter and chocolate theme so I used a chocolate cupcake instead. You can use your favorite chocolate cupcake recipe.

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

Ingredients:

About 28 chocolate cupcakes
Frosting:
1 ½ cups (12 oz) butter, softened
1 ½ cups (14 ¼ oz) creamy peanut butter
1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow crème
3 cups (12 oz) powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
Chocolate Coating:
18 oz chocolate (you can use chopped block chocolate or about 3 cups of chips—you choose whether you want to use milk or dark chocolate—I used a mix)
6 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil (I tried the first few without the oil—the coating went on too thick and was too hard to eat like a cupcake—we had to eat it like candy. Yummy, but not really the intent.)

Bake cupcakes as directed in recipe. Let cool completely.

In large bowl, beat 1 ½ cups butter and the peanut butter with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in marshmallow crème. On low speed, gradually add powdered sugar until blended. Add 2 teaspoons vanilla; beat 3 minutes longer.

Spoon frosting into decorating bag fitted with large round tip. On top of each cupcake, pipe frosting in circles making cone shape with peak in center. Refrigerate cupcakes at least 45 minutes to harden frosting before dipping in chocolate coating.

In 1 ½-quart saucepan, heat chocolate chips and oil over heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Dip cone-shaped frosting on each cupcake into chocolate coating to coat frosting completely, letting excess chocolate drip off. Refrigerate to set coating, about 5 minutes.