These dark chocolate cupcakes feature intensely flavored moist chocolate cupcakes, a silky peanut butter frosting, and a delightful Reese’s Pieces crunch on top.
Readers have called these dark chocolate cupcakes a chocolate & peanut butter lover’s dream dessert! All we did here was make a batch of these chocolate cupcakes, intensify the chocolate flavor by using dark cocoa powder, and top with something all of us peanut butter aficionados can appreciate.
Tell Me About These Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
- Texture: The dark chocolate cupcake’s texture is soft, airy, and sponge-y; because they’re made with oil, they are much softer than these buttery vanilla cupcakes. The frosting is incredibly creamy. Imagine indulging in a spoonful of pure peanut butter, but with a fluffier, silkier texture.
- Flavor: The cupcakes offer a rich dark chocolate flavor and what you’ll love most about the frosting is that it’s not overly sweet. All you taste is peanut butter. Which makes sense because it’s mostly all peanut butter—only 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar, which is low for frosting!
- Ease: There’s really nothing complicated in this recipe besides making sure you have the right cocoa powder. If you can’t find Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder, just use regular natural unsweetened cocoa powder. (The cupcakes will still have an intense chocolate flavor, similar to this triple chocolate cake.)
Choosing the Right Ingredients
- Dark cocoa: Instead of using unsweetened natural cocoa powder, we reached for a darker cocoa powder instead. Hershey’s makes a “Special Dark” cocoa powder that has a deep, dark, and bold chocolate flavor. Here’s something interesting, though. Hershey’s special dark contains both natural and Dutched cocoa powder—it’s a blend of both. As you know, there’s a huge difference between Dutch process vs. natural cocoa powder. And I never suggest substituting, but this recipe is an exception.
- Hot coffee: Hot liquid enhances the cocoa powder’s flavor. It also encourages it to bloom and dissolve appropriately. I promise these cupcakes don’t taste like coffee at all! If you don’t drink coffee, you can use hot water. For deeper and richer flavor, though, use coffee. You can either brew it in a coffee maker or make instant coffee. Decaf coffee works!
- Oil: Cocoa powder is a very drying ingredient, so you’ll usually find it paired with oil in cake and cupcake recipes. Oil provides moisture and doesn’t weigh down a baked good. Vegetable oil is ideal, but melted coconut oil or even light olive oil may be used instead.
- Buttermilk: If you can’t find buttermilk at the store, you can make this DIY buttermilk substitute with whole milk and either white vinegar or lemon juice.
- Sprinkles: Crushing Reese’s Pieces turns them into Reese’s Pieces “sprinkles.” You can certainly skip them or garnish the cupcakes with sprinkles or even crushed peanuts instead.
Key Success Tips for Chocolate Cupcakes & Peanut Butter Frosting
By the way, these dark chocolate cupcakes would also be fantastic with the frosting from these chocolate cupcakes with raspberry frosting! Or you can fill the cupcakes, like we do for these cream-filled chocolate cupcakes.
Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting Recipe
Ingredients You’ll Need
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a 12-count muffin pan with cupcake liners. This recipe yields about 14 to 16 cupcakes, so line a second muffin pan with a few more liners or bake in batches.
- Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside. In a large bowl, preferably with a pour spout, whisk the oil, sugar, egg, vanilla, and buttermilk together until combined. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, add the hot coffee/water, and whisk until the batter is completely combined. Batter is thin.
- Pour the batter into the liners, filling only 2/3 full to avoid spilling over the sides.
- Bake for 20–22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow cupcakes to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Cupcakes must be completely cooled before decorating.
- With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar, heavy cream, vanilla extract, and salt. Beat on low speed until combined, then increase to high speed and beat for 3 full minutes. Add up to 1/4 cup more confectioners’ sugar if frosting is too thin or another Tablespoon of cream if frosting is too thick.
- Frost cooled cupcakes. I used a Wilton 1M piping tip. Top with crushed Reese’s Pieces, if desired.
- Store leftovers, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. I recommend a cupcake carrier for storing decorated cupcakes.
all-purpose flour, brown sugar, buttermilk, cocoa powder, confectioners-sugar, eggs, espresso powder, granulated sugar, heavy cream, oil, peanut butter, Reese's Pieces, vanilla extract
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