Reese's Cupcakes

A Reese's Cupcake topped with peanut butter frosting and a Reese's peanut butter cup.

These moist chocolate cupcakes have a full Reese's peanut butter cup baked in the center. It's topped with a smooth peanut butter frosting, and I'm not kidding you... these are the most amazing cupcakes ever!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 17

Total Time 37

Servings cupcakes

Calories 411kcal

Author Whitney Wright

Ingredients

Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup water warm
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
15 Reese's peanut butter cups full size

Peanut Butter Frosting

1/2 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon heavy cream or milk, if needed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a cupcake tin with paper liners. Set aside.
In a large bowl whisk the flour, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a large liquid measuring cup whisk the water, oil, egg, vanilla, and vinegar. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix until just combined and no flour streaks remain.
Portion the batter into the cupcake pan filling only ½ full. Place an unwrapped Reese’s PB cup over the batter and gently press the PB cup into the batter, so that the perimeter of the peanut butter cup is covered by batter, and the middle is still slightly exposed. Refer to the blog post to see pictures if you need to.
Bake for 17-18 minutes. You won’t be able to test for doneness in the center of the cupcake with a toothpick because of the Reese’s pb cup. But when you touch the edge and centers of the cupcakes they will be set and soft to the touch.
Remove from oven and let cool in pan 5 mins then turn out to a cooling rack to cool completely. Frost with PB frosting!
Make the peanut butter frosting: To make the peanut butter frosting cream the butter and peanut butter in a stand mixer on medium speed for 1-2 minutes. Add the powdered sugar, heavy cream, vanilla, and salt. Mix on medium speed for 2-3 minutes. Add more heavy cream to get your desired consistency.

Notes

Use a traditional PB like Skippy or Jif. Natural peanut butters have too much oil separation — which will affect the texture of the frosting.

If you push the Reese's into the batter too much, you'll get more of a crust -- with the Reese's sitting on the bottom of the cupcake instead of in the center (which isn't bad, just letting you know!)

Nutrition