Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes

High school friends often don't keep in touch, but I've been blessed with 3 whom I do keep in touch.  We try to get together once a month for a girls dinner out or a playdate with the 6 little ones.  Whenever I have them to my place, I seem to always make cupcakes for dessert and now I feel the need to figure out a new one each time they come over.  I had made these cupcakes for my husband's staff about a year ago and had forgotten about them until one of them requested that I make them again.  After a quick refresher on which ones he meant, I decided to make them again and make extra for the playdate lunch.

What goes together than peanut butter and chocolate?  Nothing.

I had a busy week, so I did simplify by using a Devil's Food Cake box mix, but I've made this with a homemade chocolate cake recipe too.  I bought a bag of no-name chocolate peanut butter cups.  They need to be the mini ones in order to work really well.  I filled the lined muffin tins as I regularly would with a scoop and pressed the peanut butter cups into the batter so that the candy was flat with the batter, but the batter didn't cover the top of it.

I baked the cupcakes as per the instructions on the box (or the recipe).  What I love about this is that you get a filled cupcake without all the work of filling the cupcake.  Once you pull them out of the oven, all that's left is to frost them and you're good to go!

The peanut butter frosting was different this time around, and far more delicious than my first attempt.  It's so simple too

Fluffy Peanut Butter Frosting
1 cup peanut butter (I used smooth)
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups confectioners (icing) sugar
3 tbsp milk or as needed to desired consistency

Cream butter and peanut butter until fluffy, add sugar a little at a time.  Add milk a small about at a time, stirring between additions.  Don't eat it all with a spoon before frosting your cupcakes!

I shaved some good quality chocolate over the top once done, but that is totally optional.  They are delicious without chocolate shavings too!