Who doesn’t love candy and cupcakes? I combined some of everyone’s favorite candy bar flavors – peanut butter cups and Snickers – to make these delicious and pretty cupcakes.
You can use whatever base you’d like for the chocolate cupcakes – if you have a favorite recipe, go for it, or go for the easy way and use a box mix (I always add an extra egg and replace the water with milk). The same goes for the chocolate frosting – you can make your own or use the premade and it works fine either way.Then you mix up some easy buttercream icing and away you go!
These recipes call for the use of some decorating tips and a decorating bag. Please don’t be intimidated by the cake decorating aisle at your local crafts store! Learning cake decorating is a lot of fun, but even if you have no intention of doing so, picking up a box of disposable plastic decorating bags, a few tips (round and “star” tips in different sizes), and the plastic couplers you can use to switch out tips will make your life so much easier. If you’ve always used the supermarket cake decorating sets with the plastic tips, you won’t believe how much easier it is to get the results you want with these! As a note, very large tips (such as the 1M I use for the chocolate frosting in these recipes) will not fit on the coupler – you drop them straight in the bag and then cut the bag so the tip sticks out.
Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes
Ingredients
Peanut Butter Buttercream
- 6 tablespoons butter, softened
- 3 tablespoons peanut butter
- 1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 4 tablespoons heavy cream
- 24 chocolate cupcakes
- chocolate frosting
Instructions
- Bake cupcakes and let cool completely.
- If making chocolate frosting, make it now and set aside.
Make Peanut Butter Buttercream:
- Add peanut butter to softened butter in a large mixing bowl.
- Mix peanut butter and butter together until creamy and well combined.
- Gradually add confectioner’s sugar and beat until sugar is completely incorporated.
- Add heavy cream, one tablespoon at a time, until frosting is desired consistency.
- This will make a little more frosting than you need for 24 cupcakes. You can keep the rest in the fridge for 3 days and use it to ice additional cupcakes. It will harden in the fridge – let it sit out at room temperature for about a half-hour and if necessary, mix in more heavy cream, one tablespoon at a time.
Fill, Frost and Decorate:
- Fill decorating bag about 1/2 full of peanut butter buttercream. Using a large round decorating tip (Wilton #10), push down into the cupcake to fill with peanut butter buttercream. As you squeeze the decorating bag, you should see the cupcake fill. Be careful not to squeeze too hard, or the cupcake can crack. If this happens, simply squeeze the two sides together around the filling. Repeat for each cupcake, refilling decorating bag as necessary.
- Fill a second decorating bag about 1/2 full of chocolate frosting. Using a large star tip (Wilton #1M), pipe a large star on top of each cupcake, covering the hole where the filling went in. Alternatively, you can just frost the entire top of each cupcake with chocolate frosting.
- Change the tip on the peanut butter buttercream decorating bag to a small star tip (I used Wilton #16, but any star tip smaller than the first one will work. Pipe a small star on top of each cupcake.
Peanut butter cups are JP’s favorite, and he loved these cupcakes! I’m not the biggest peanut butter cup fan, but even I liked these. If we’re talking candy bars, I like mini Snickers – I think I’ve told the story of how I thought I didn’t for a long time and then I had one and remembered I do. I’m not sure my waistline thanked me for that revelation…oops!
So, in the interest of having something for everyone, I present Snickers cupcakes! By the way, JP really liked these too!
Snickers Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 24 chocolate cupcakes
- chocolate frosting
- 1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
- 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1/8 cup caramel homemade or premade – do not use sundae syrup
- 1/8 cup peanuts, finely chopped
Instructions
Get Ready:
- Bake chocolate cupcakes and let cool completely.
- If making chocolate frosting, prepare it now.
Make the Buttercream:
- Beat softened butter and vanilla extract until creamy.
- Gradually add confectioner’s sugar and beat at medium-high speed after each addition until sugar is completely incorporated (about 5 minutes).
- Add heavy cream, one tablespoon at a time, and beat well after each addition.
- Chill until ready to use, bearing in mind that it will harden in the fridge. If you’ve made it in advance, let warm at room temperature for 30 minutes and add more cream if necessary.
Fill, Frost and Decorate:
- Fill a decorating bag about 1/2 full of buttercream. Using a large round tip (Wilton #16), push into the middle of each cupcake. Squeeze gently to fill the cupcake with buttercream. Be careful not to squeeze too hard – you could crack the cupcake. Continue until all cupcakes are filled, refilling decorating bag as necessary.
- Fill a second decorating bag about 1/2 full of chocolate icing. Using a large star tip (Wilton #1M), pipe a star on top of each cupcake, completely covering the hole where the cupcake was filled. Alternatively, you can just frost the entire top of each cupcake with chocolate frosting.
- Pour caramel into a squeeze bottle or a decorating bag with a medium round tip (Wilton #5 or 7). Draw an “x” across each cupcake, from side to side (this will cover both the frosted and unfrosted parts of the cupcake). As mentioned in the ingredient list, you can use pre-made caramel, but do not get caramel “sundae syrup” in the squeeze bottle – it is too runny and will drip all over your cupcakes instead of sitting nicely on top.
- Finely chop peanuts. Sprinkle each cupcake with chopped peanuts.
