Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

I made these to bring to my Auntie's birthday party and they were a big hit with all of my family! She loves the chocolate and peanut butter combination (who doesn't?) so it was an easy decision to come up with a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup cupcake.

Chocolate Cupcake Ingredients:

1 box Devil’s Food (or other chocolate variety) cake mix

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil

1/2 tsp. cinnamon (optional)

4 eggs

Approx. 8 Reese’s Pieces peanut butter cups, cut into thirds or fourths

Peanut Butter Icing Ingredients:

8 oz. pkg. cream cheese

2/3 cup softened butter

1 and 3/4 cups peanut butter

2 tsp. vanilla extract

3-5 cups icing sugar

3/4 cup of milk

Cupcake Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in center of oven. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

Combine the cake mix, buttermilk, oil, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed until moistened, about 30 seconds. Add eggs one at a time, until the batter is well-mixed. Increase speed to high and beat until thick, approx. 2 minutes longer.

Pour or scoop the batter into the paper liners until they are 3/4 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cupcakes cool on a wire rack before icing.

Icing Directions:

With a mixer, cream together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Then add the peanut butter and vanilla extract and mix to combine. Add about 3 cups of powdered sugar and mix together. The icing will look very crumbly. Then add the milk, beat until light and fluffy. Keep adding in icing sugar and blending until the icing is nice and smooth but firm. You don’t want the consistency of the icing to be runny at all.

To decorate the cooled cupcakes I put about half my icing in a large Ziploc bag, cut a small hole in one of the corners and then squeezed out the icing through the hole. I try not to fill the bag too full of icing so that it doesn’t come out the other end and make a huge mess. Using a Ziploc bag for small icing jobs without detail is also a lot easier than using a piping bag and piping tips because once you’re done you can just throw the plastic bag in the garbage. But, if you would like to use an icing bag then feel free. I cut each Reese’s Pieces peanut butter cups into three equal pieces and used each piece to garnish a cupcake.

*Recipe by Brooke McMillan