Cupcake a Week: Chocolate & Peanut Butter Swirl

Have you ever made a jumbo cupcake? Let's just say this was my first and not so great experience using the Wilton giant cupcake pan. It started out as a good idea...


I had some left over Reese's Cups from Easter...so what came to mind...a jumbo chocolate and peanut butter cupcake! I LOVE that flavor combination!


I made a chocolate cake batter and a peanut butter mixture that were swirled together in the pan. I taste tested both batters and so far they were super yummy! But while the cake was baking the middle just never seemed to firm up. I kept doing the toothpick test but the center still seemed gooey. So I'd leave it in for 5 more minutes, then 5 more minutes. Finally I just decided to pull the cake out of the oven because the outer edges were definitely ready. I just kept my fingers crossed the cake would be firm enough to stack.


While the cake cooled I made a batch of chocolate buttercream and a batch of peanut butter cream cheese icing and placed in piping bags so I'd be ready to decorate.


Then it was time to frost the bottom of the cupcake. I used a star tip and piped vertical strips of icing all the way around.


Then I swirled chocolate icing around the center of the cake before adding the top of the cupcake.


Then I swirled alternating rings of chocolate buttercream and peanut butter icing. So far the cake seems to be pretty sturdy...icing is almost complete.


Now for the Reese's Cups...I chopped the mini candies into four pieces and had planned to use these as a garnish on top of the cupcake...but my plan just didn't quite seem to fall into place. Brace yourself for the next picture you are about to see....

Literally in the blink of an eye my cupcake started to collapse. I didn't even have the Reese's cups on top of it yet...the whole inspiration behind this cupcake. So basically I just panicked knowing any minute the entire cupcake could collapse and I just threw some Reese's on top so I could at least get a picture.

This is just so sad...I mean where did the bottom of the cupcake go...it looks like it never even existed. Has anyone else ever made a giant cupcake and had the bottom completely crumble??? I am convinced it must be the peanut butter mixture that was swirled in the middle of the cupcake and that there wasn't enough stability b/c the center was too gooey...does this sound like the reason for the failure? And this isn't even the worst picture...about 5 minutes later it had fallen over a few more inches. Where you see the ring of peanut butter icing, it was pretty much touching the edge of the plate. What a bummer!

But let's look on the bright side...even though the cupcake crumbled it's still edible right? So what did I do, I grabbed a fork and dug right in...and I must say it was super yummy! I definitely recommend you still try this recipe, just maybe with smaller cupcakes in mind!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Cupcakes

Chocolate cake:
-1 box Devils Food cake mix
-1/2 cup vegetable oil
-3 eggs
-1 cup chocolate milk

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare desired cake or cupcake pans.
  
• Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes.
• Set batter aside.
• Prepare peanut butter filling.
  

Peanut Butter Filling:
-1 stick unsalted butter, melted
-1 cup confectioners' sugar
-1 1/4 cups peanut butter
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Stir together all ingredients until smooth.
• Layer mixtures into pans as follows: chocolate, peanut butter, chocolate, peanut butter, chocolate
  
• Take a knife and swirl the chocolate and peanut butter layers together.
• Bake in the oven according to the required time for the pan size you use (for the jumbo cupcake it took about 45 minutes...but again use this recipe in the jumbo pan at your own risk, based on the outcome of my cake...I don't recommend it)
• Frost with chocolate buttercream and peanut butter cream cheese icing.
  

Chocolate Buttercream

- 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
-6 cups confectioners' sugar
-1/2 cup milk
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1/2 cup cocoa powder

• Beat butter on medium speed in electric mixer until creamy.
• Add in confectioners sugar, milk and vanilla and beat until desired consistency.
• Mix in cocoa powder.

Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Icing

-1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
-3 oz cream cheese, softened
-1/2 cup peanut butter
-1 cup confectioners' sugar

• Beat butter on medium speed in electric mixer until creamy.
• Add in cream cheese and peanut butter and mix well until combined.
• Add confectioners' sugar and beat on medium until fluffy.
  

ENJOY!