Martha Monday: Peanut Butter-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

The twins made Peanut Butter-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes from Page 118 of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Book (Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat).

Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over double boiler  .

Combine chocolate mixture with sugar.

Add eggs and combine until smooth. Then add vanilla.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt.

Add flour mixture and stir.

Now for peanut butter filling. Melt butter and combine with confectioner's sugar.

Add peanut butter, salt, and vanilla. Stir to combine.

Add 2 tablespoons of chocolate mix to cupcake liner. Followed by 1 tablespoon of peanut butter filling. Top with 1 tablespoon of chocolate mix and 1 teaspoon of peanut butter filling. Use a chopstick or skewer to gently swirl "TOP" only. Bake at 325 degrees for approx 30 minutes.

Frosting:

We changed it up a little though and filled them even further with Martha's Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting from page 310 (Recipe). We then topped them by piping Martha's Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting and Hershey's Especially Dark Frosting (Recipe) swirled together.

We used half the recipe for Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting. Combine cream cheese and confectioner's sugar until fluffy. Add salt, peanut butter and vanilla. Beat to combine.

Fold whipped cream into peanut butter mixture until smooth.

Hershey's Especially Dark Frosting:

Combine melted butter and dark cocoa powder.

Alternate by adding confectioner's sugar and milk and blending. Add vanilla. Add more milk if necessary.

We used the creamy peanut butter frosting to fill cupcakes with a # 10 tip after they cooled as well as swirled it with Hershey's Especially Dark Frosting and piped a swirl on top.

I have to say they turned out pretty yummy but they are more like brownies than a traditional cupcake! Good concept but I will probably follow a different chocolate cupcake recipe next time and add the peanut butter swirl from this recipe to make it more cake-like.