These are my new & improved peanut butter cupcakes. I use oil, brown sugar, sour cream, and extra milk to guarantee each cupcake is soft and moist. Very finely chopped peanuts add flavor. They’re tender, flavorful, and EASY, making this updated recipe the indisputable peanut butter cupcake champion!
Recipe disappointment solved.
Back in 2013, I published a different peanut butter cupcake recipe, a dessert I found easy at the time. They were far from perfect. The cupcakes were dense and dried out quickly. Many readers had commented with the same disappointing results. I knew I could do better. The cupcakes (and you!) deserve it. 🙂
And after a few cupcake experiments with many taste testers, I produced flavorful and soft peanut butter cupcakes. These laugh in the face of the old recipe and they’re even more wildly delicious than they look. So moist!!
Old Peanut Butter Cupcakes Recipe:
The original recipe called for creamed butter and sugar. This is how I typically start vanilla cupcakes. But peanut butter is a special ingredient. Though it’s technically “wet,” it’s heavy, dense, and actually pretty drying. Peanut butter baked goods need extra insurance to remain moist. I replaced the butter with oil and added sour cream and extra milk. Because the cupcakes are peanut butter flavored, we won’t miss the butter.
As we taste-tested, my friend Gabe recommended very finely chopped peanuts to amp up the peanut flavor. This addition worked miracles! If you chop the peanuts fine enough, they won’t be crunchy or anything. Rather, they’ll melt right into the cupcake itself.
As soon as they finished baking, I knew the new peanut butter cupcakes would be a huge success! They smell AWESOME. Here’s a list of everything I did differently.
And for even more flavor, I snuck some peanut butter into the chocolate frosting too!
The chocolate peanut butter frosting is simple. Start with butter, confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder, and milk or cream. Remember: proper room temperature butter! Beat it together, then add vanilla extract, a giant spoonful of creamy peanut butter, and a pinch of salt. Just when you thought chocolate buttercream couldn’t get any better…. now it literally tastes like a peanut butter cup.. This is a VERY easy swirled frosting technique. Any large open or closed star piping tip will give you a similar swirl look. Though it’s a little smaller, I also love Wilton 1M.
If you’re looking for a little something different, top with my strawberry buttercream frosting for a PB&J flavor combination! And if you can’t get enough of peanut butter with chocolate, try these peanut butter chocolate swirl cookies next.
These are my new & improved peanut butter cupcakes. I use oil, brown sugar, sour cream, and extra milk to guarantee each cupcake is soft and moist. Finely chopped peanuts add flavor. They're tender, flavorful, and EASY, making this updated recipe the indisputable peanut butter cupcake champion!
