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These Peanut Butter Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes are bursting with rich chocolate, banana and peanut butter flavor! A peanut butter buckeye is stuffed inside a moist chocolate banana cupcake and all topped off with a Reese’s peanut butter frosting!
I wracked my brain to think of a more concise name for these cupcakes. Really, I did. Somehow a shorter, cuter, catchier name just didn’t fit. In reality this lengthy name doesn’t begin to describe just how wonderful these Peanut Butter Stuffed Double Chocolate Banana Cupcakes are!
Did you think it couldn’t get much better than a double chocolate banana cupcake topped with a luscious peanut butter icing? Then I probably shouldn’t tell you that I took delicious one step further with a peanut butter buckeye filling baked right inside.
That’s right. I said peanut butter inside!
And while that covert buckeye filling is hiding away inside, pillowy swirls of Reese’s peanut butter frosting float atop the cupcake.
It’s a beautiful thing.
I understand. All this deliciousness in one small package can be overwhelming. Just breathe.
We’ll make it.
Each component of these Peanut Butter Stuffed Double Chocolate Banana Cupcakes would be heavenly alone; any combination of two elements would be downright divine; but all three together will put you over the edge! These are the type of cupcakes that could start a riot if one is not careful.
The Reese’s peanut butter frosting is the same one that I created for my Reese’s Peanut Butter Blondies and the peanut butter filling is like the peanut buttery center of a Buckeye. I adapted my Double Chocolate Banana Muffin recipe to create the Double Chocolate Banana cupcakes, and they are superb!
Next time you have some slightly over-ripe bananas (not super, duper over ripe because this is not the recipe for those) don’t even think about making banana bread. Make these beauties instead. In fact, it would be justifiable to buy overripe bananas for this recipe.
I did. And I have no regrets.
Peanut Butter Stuffed Double Chocolate Banana Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes:
- 2 cups cake flour sifted
- ½ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup whole milk
- ½ cup dark brown sugar packed
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups butter softened
- 1 ½ cups mashed ripe bananas (~3 large bananas)
- ¾ cups mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
For the Buckeye Filling:
- ½ cup powdered sugar + 2 tablespoons
- 6 tablespoons creamy peanut butter I use Jiff
- 2 tablespoons butter room temperature
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Reese’s Peanut Butter Icing:
- 6 tablespoons butter unsalted
- ½ cup evaporated milk
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 6 oz Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar sifted
Instructions
Make the Buckeyes
- First make your Buckeye filling. It will freeze into balls while we make the cupcakes.
- Beat together all ingredients in a bowl until combined and mixture is dry yet holds together. You might need to add additional powdered sugar. Roll into 1-inch balls, place on baking sheet and freeze until you are ready to use them.
Prepare Cupcakes
- Pre-heat oven to 350° F. Line 12 muffin tins with liners. I double up on my liners just to make sure the cupcakes stay moist.
- Sift the first five ingredients together in a medium bowl and set aside. I measure my flour by spooning flour into my baking cup directly from the bag until it is slightly mounded. Level with a sharp knife. Do not tap cup or in any way compact your flour.
- Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs and vanilla; beat until combined
- Alternately add dry ingredients and the milk; beginning and ending with flour mixture. I did 2 additions of milk and 3 of the flour mixture. Mix only until just combined. Be careful not to over mix.
- Fold in bananas and chips only until banana is distributed throughout batter.
- Scoop enough batter into each tin to reach half way up the liner. Press a buckeye ball deep into each tin but not deep enough to reach the bottom. Cover the balls with the rest of the batter. They should be about ¾ full. Bake at 350° F for ~20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with only some crumbs attached. Make sure that you didn’t just hit a chocolate chip because melted chocolate can make your muffins appear underdone. We don’t want that!
- Allow to cool 5 minutes in the tins. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
- When your cupcakes are almost cool, start making your icing.
For the Icing:
- Combine butter, milk, peanut butter chips and salt in a heatproof bowl; cook over a pan of simmering water (bain marie) until butter is melted and mixture is hot to the touch. Stir frequently.
- Cool. This step only takes about 15 minutes, especially if you stir it frequently. You want the peanut butter mixture to be very thick. So thick that it will not drop off your spatula.
- Gradually add in powdered sugar and beat until thick enough to pipe. You will want it to hold stiff peaks.
- Pipe onto cooled cupcakes. If you plan on piping your frosting as tall as mine in the photos, you will want to double this recipe, but I think it’s too much. If I were simply going to eat them, I would have used less.
I truly was so excited for this recipe but I feel like every step just did not go as directed. I don’t own a bakery but am a great baker. As someone mentioned the icing takes awhile to cool it needs to be refrigerated. 12 cupcakes??? I got 27! And not enough frosting. Cake felt dry which maybe was over baking but definitely not the banana chocolate kick I was hoping for! Really bummed as I was hoping to love this!