This past weekend, we had our Central Florida Food Blogger Bake Sale as part of the National Food Blogger Bake Sale to benefit Share Our Strength. I'm pleased to announced that we raised over $1300!!! Considering our goal was to surpass last year's fundraising here in Central Florida and make it to $500, I call it a resounding success! Thank you to everyone who came out and bought our baked goods and bought raffle tickets.
And a huge thank you to these food bloggers who baked and helped out so much! Aggie from Aggie's Kitchen, Pearleen from MegaYummo!, Katie from Katie's Cucina, Jaclyn from food + words, Jim from Comfort in Crumbs, Dawn from Wicked Good Dinner, Suzanne from My Adventures in Food, Robin from Simply Southern Baking, Wanda from My Sweet Zepol, and Holly from I Could Eat and Zeema from Sweet ‘Scapes Catering. And thank you to Gaby from What's Gaby Cooking, the founder of the National Food Blogger Bake Sale, we raised over $24,500 nationally. If you came out to support the bake sales across the country, thank you so much! We are one step closer to getting rid of childhood hunger.
I wanted to share with you the recipe for the cupcakes I made for the bake sale and then proceeded to make for the NASA Tweetup I attended for the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour. These cupcakes are to die for and when I first saw them on My Baking Addiction, I pinned it and knew I had to try them one day. When the bake sale came up, I knew this cupcake would be the perfect thing to make for it. Um, there are no words, first of all, Jamie is a genius and these cupcakes are officially my new favorite cupcake. I'm going be making them ALL the time!
The cupcake has the perfect moistness and icing is amazing. And you can't go wrong with a peanut butter cup inside. The recipe is incredibly easy to make and I'm so happy that Jamie said it was okay for me to share the recipe on my blog! I only modified it slightly and that's because I didn't read her recipe close enough when I asked my husband to pick up some of the ingredients for me. I had him buy the smaller boxes of instant pudding and it worked out just fine.
Recipe
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Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 18.25 oz package devil’s food cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
- 1 3.4 oz package instant chocolate pudding mix
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 4 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon instant espresso granules dissolve it in 1/2 cup warm water
- 30 Reese’s Miniatures peanut butter cups unwrapped and frozen
Peanut Butter Buttercream Icing
- 3 sticks unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 2 Tablespoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 lbs powdered sugar
- 3 to 4 Tablespoons low-fat milk
- Reese's peanut butter cups minis in a bag & they come unwrapped
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Be sure to preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Place cupcake liners in your cupcake or muffin pan.
- In a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer or your stand mixer bowl using the paddle attachment, mix together all of your ingredients except the peanut butter cups for minute or two until well mixed.
- Place 3 Tbsp of cake batter in each cupcake liner. Take one frozen peanut butter cup and place in the center of each cupcake on top of the batter, press down a little bit.
- Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until several cupcakes pricked with a toothpick come out clean. Do not prick the cupcake where the peanut butter cup is inserted. There will be a slight indentation or hole where the cupcake is sunken in from the peanut butter cup, you'll fill that with icing. Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes.
- Remove cupcakes from the pans and place them on a cooling rack & let them cool all the way. While the cupcakes are baking you can make the buttercream icing.
Peanut Butter Buttercream
- In your stand mixer bowl using the paddle attachment, mix thoroughly the softened butter and peanut butter on low to medium speed. Turn off your mixer and in two batches, add the powdered sugar and mixing until well blended. Be careful, the powered sugar can go everywhere!
- Add vanilla and 3 to 4 tablespoons of milk a little bit at a time while blending on low speed. Blend until well combined. You'll start to see the icing pull from the sides of the bowl. Add a little bit more milk to get to the right thinness (to your preference). Keep blending, higher the speed, until nice and fluffy, about 5 to 7 minutes.
- Using a big round tip and decorator bag, pipe icing onto cooled cupcakes and top with a mini on each cupcake.
Some notes:
- I used a smaller box of instant pudding because that's what I told my husband but it worked out just fine.
- I don't like tons of icing on my cupcakes so one batch of peanut butter icing actually worked for 2 batches of cupcakes for me.
- I used a Tbsp measuring spoon, I really need to get a cookie scoop or a ice cream scoop that measures out to 3 Tbsp.
- I actually ended up with 30 cupcakes in the batch...so even more to share or to keep for yourself! I don't like putting 3 cupcake pans in the oven so I'll usually fill up two of them (24 cupcakes), bake them and then fill one with the remaining 6 cupcakes.
- I prefer to make buttercream icing in a stand mixer but you can make it with a hand mixer in a large bowl, it may take a little longer to make but it's worth it!
- I actually left the cupcakes on a cooling rack covered with a kitchen towel and placed the icing in the fridge overnight. When you're ready to frost your cupcakes, allow to the icing to sit on the counter for at least 20 to 30 minutes. I even added splashes of water to it to make it even more fluffy before piping the icing onto the cupcakes.
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Jecca says
I made this recipe this weekend, and it was a huge hit. I made a two tiered cake instead of cupcakes, so I chopped up some Reese’s to put on top, instead of cooking them inside. I also had to use more than a few substitutions (almond milk instead of regular, part olive oil because my canola ran out, Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, instant coffee instead of espresso, and also used the small box of pudding) and this recipe still turned out FABULOUS! Everyone raved, and this has inspired me to try the pudding effect on other boxed cakes/flavors. Best. Icing. Ever. I just had a piece for dinner (don’t judge me). Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Chelsea says
These sound great! I am making them today for a group I am involved in with my church. BUT, I dont have sour cream. I could have sworn I had some on hand but turns out that I dont. Is there anything I can substitute?
Julie Deily says
Hi, Chelsea! Looks like when you google it, there are a lot of substitutions for sour cream but I would be wary because you’re baking here, not cooking. What I would do in this situation is just make the cake mix with the instructions on the box and follow through with the rest of the recipe. Hope they enjoy the cupcakes!
ATasteOfMadness says
Now this is what I need. Like, right now. Tonight. It’s never too late in the night to bake 😉
Karin says
These are phenomenal cupcakes and very easy to make!! My favorite recipe I’ve found online!!! I was wondering about freezing or storing them. Any idea on if they can keep ok in the freezer for a week and be thawed? Thank you!
sweetsugarbelle says
WOW!
jen @ one curly fry says
Gorgeous! I love love love peanut butter Buttercream icing. These look amazing.
Tosha says
I’m trying to make these, but can’t seem to find instant espresso. Where did you get yours from?
Julie Deily says
I found it at my grocery store in the coffee section & also at specialty food stores. It’s a small bottle & looks like instant coffee. You can try coffee too if you can’t find it.