Chocolate and Peanut Butter? Yes please!

Who doesn't like chocolate and peanut butter?? I know I do!! What I did here was make chocolate cupcakes (tried a new recipe), fill it with a peanut butter filling, and made two frostings... chocolate buttercream and peanut butter buttercream and mashed them together in my pastry bag and made purdy swirls! :) Of course I topped them with a mini Reese's cup... Apparently they were extremely good and went fast at our football party!!

Swan's Down Ultimate Chocolate Birthday Cake

I got about two dozen cupcakes! Full almost to top of liner :)

Ingredients

1 ¾ cup Swans Down Cake Flour (Any cake flour will do)

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used about a cup) 

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon salt

1 cup sour cream

1/3 cup water (I boiled mine)

2 ½ teaspoons vanilla (I used 1T)

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/3 cups firmly packed light brown sugar (I used a cup of brown, and 1/3 cup white sugar.. I ran out of brown sugar :P)

3 large eggs (Always at room temperature when baking cupcakes!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake tins with paper.

In a bowl mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a small bowl whisk together sour cream, (boiled) water and vanilla. In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture to butter mixture in batches alternately with sour cream mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture and stirring until batter is blended well.

Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake in middle of oven 25 to 30 minutes (mine took 18-19!), or until a tester comes out clean. (My method is to press down on them until they spring back up) Cool completely.

After they cooled I took a melon baller and scooped out holes for filling - I decided not to use my awesome filling pans this time :)

Peanut Butter Filling

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

Milk if needed

Beat together peanut butter, confectioners' sugar and salt. Depending on the consistency you want, I ended up adding a little milk to make it "creamier". I added tbsp of milk at a time until I got right consistency for what I wanted, about two or three. I put this in a small plastic bag - then just cut off the tip and fill the cupcakes when they're ready.

Peanut Butter Buttercream

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup milk

Place the confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

Cream butter until smooth. Add peanut butter, vanilla, and salt, and beat until fluffy. Add confectioners’ sugar a little at a time (makes less of a mess) until buttercream is light and fluffy.  Add milk a little at a time to achieve your desired consistency.

Chocolate Buttercream

3 cups confectioners' sugar

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 sticks butter

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/8 tsp. salt

Up to 1/4 cup milk

Cream butter until smooth. Add cocoa powder, vanilla, and salt, and beat until fluffy. Add confectioners’ sugar a little at a time (makes less of a mess) until buttercream is light and fluffy.  Add milk a little at a time to achieve your desired consistency.

"Paint" vertical lines of the peanut butter buttercream on the inside of your pastry bag. This is sort of an example from someone else - they painted frosting coloring gel, but do the same thing with your PB buttercream, just thicker :)

Once you have done that, try not to let the sides of the pastry bag touch - now spoon in your chocolate buttercream like you would normally do and squeeze out frosting until desired swirl starts coming out of the pastry bag. 

I used a large french tip to do my swirl on these. Came out great!

Happy baking!