Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Butterfinger Cupcakes With Peanut Butter Frosting

My newest cupcake iteration combines my favorite candy bar, the Butterfinger, into a Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cupcake.  The chocolate cupcakes were perfect, though I will be the first to admit that the Chocolate Stout Cupcakes are still my favorite.  However, the synthesis of the chocolate Butterfinger cupcake with the perfect peanut butter frosting was the perfect combination.

I've actually only been making cupcakes regularly for about two years now.  In the beginning, I did not have an artisan mixer, so this presented all kinds of problems when I got to the stage of whipping up a good frosting.  In those days a used a hand mixer, which usually resulted in spraying bits of butter and powdered sugar all over the kitchen, including sticking to the wall.  This never pleased the person in charge of cleanup duties  (my loving husband).

A second problem was that I did not have a good cupcake book - the book I started with (which shall remain nameless) was terrible and every cupcake recipe I tried never was worth repeating.  Then, I tried Julie Hassan's book, 125 Best Cupcake Recipes, and immediately every cupcake I made was a huge success.  After a few months of making Julie's amazing cupcakes (with some recipes I will eventually share here), I have started writing my own recipes and coming up with creative and fun ways to decorate the cupcakes.

In her book, Julie has a recipe for candy bar cupcakes using Three Musketeers and Snickers bars.  I don't care for those candy bars, but I wanted to use candy bars to create a chocolate peanut butter classic.  So from there, I went on to devise my own recipe for a candy bar cupcake.

 Chocolate Butterfinger Cupcake With Peanut Butter Frosting

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 cups cocoa

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cups milk

2 Butterfinger candy bars, crushed into small pieces with a nut chopper

Peanut Butter Frosting

2 cups confectioners sugar

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

pinch salt

2 T milk

If you want a crunch peanut butter frosting, you can mix another Butterfinger bar into the frosting

To make the cupcakes, mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.  Add the oil and sugar to the mixer and combine on medium speed.  Then add the vanilla and eggs.  Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the mix, until fully combined.  Put in silicon cups with cupcake liners and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes until done (check with a toothpick).

To make the frosting, beat the butter until soft.  Then combine with the other ingredients and beat at a high speed in your stand mixer until you have a light and fluffy peanut butter frosting.  This stuff tastes amazing, that you almost forget that it's so fattening!

More chocolate cupcakes?  Check out my Red Velvet Cupcakes and my Chocolate Stout Cupcakes.

Cupcake