Fluffy peanut butter frosting topped with chocolate peanut butter ganache and Reese’s Pieces! You can switch the cake out for a chocolate cake mix or use either my Chocolate Cake Mix Substitute or my White Cake Mix Substitute. These cupcakes and their colors are perfect for Halloween! Alright, I know the spooky holiday is still over a month away but I’m just getting too excited to wait! Costco already has Christmas decorations for sale! I won’t start with the eggnog recipes just yet though 🙂
The Story:
Okay, I’ll admit it. I don’t like Halloween.
I don’t like scary movies or haunted houses or scrubbing for hours trying to get face paint off my skin or staying up late or eating candy until I feel sick. I don’t wear a mini skirt and fuzzy ears and call myself a cat and I can’t for the life of me bob for an apple!
But I do love Halloween baking 🙂
Reese’s Pieces Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 Box white cake mix
- 3 eggs
- 1/3 C. oil or melted butter
- 1/2 C. milk or buttermilk
- 3/4 C. sour cream or plain yogurt
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 C. Reese's Pieces
Peanut Butter Frosting:
- 1/2 C. butter softened
- 1/2 C. smooth peanut butter
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/4 C. milk more if needed
- 2-3 C. powdered sugar
Peanut Butter Chocolate Ganache: (optional)
- 1/4 C. chocolate chips
- 1/2 C. smooth peanut butter
Extra Reese's Pieces for decoration
Instructions
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1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line pans with cupcake liners.
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2. Sift cake mix into a large bowl to remove any lumps and add eggs, oil, milk, sour cream and vanilla extract. Stir until smooth.
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3. Stir in Reese's Pieces and fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 15-20 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.
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4. Let cool.
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5. Peanut Butter Frosting: Beat butter and peanut butter until smooth. Add vanilla extract, milk and 1 cup powdered sugar. Beat again. Slowly add in more powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency. Add more milk if frosting becomes too thick.
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6. Peanut Butter Chocolate Ganache: In a microwave safe bowl, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter together and stir until smooth.
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7. Pipe buttercream onto cooled cupcakes, drizzle over ganache (I made a mini piping bag with a plastic sandwich bag and snipped off the tip) then top with Reese's Pieces.
The greaseproof cupcake liners are from Sweets & Treats
But really, how gorgeous are these? Cupcakes are all about what you top them off with! Pour on a little melted chocolate and some candy and they’re always a show stopper!
The far away shot… I used my mother’s old baking sheet for my backdrop. I love the texture of colors it gives to the photo. And a cute little cake stand from TJ Maxx. I have to say, I’m the biggest fan of TJ Maxx, I just go in there and roam all the time.
Simple and beautiful. AND delicious 🙂
Wow!! These look so good <3 I love that you show how you take your pictures 🙂
Hi that recipe sounds really good but ici don’t have a white cake mix how can i make these muffins ? Thanks 🙂
I linked to my cake mix substitute mix!
Need to get my hands on some reeses pieces now so I can make these cupcakes… they looks amazingly delicious. Pinned!
Yum! These look so good! I never think about putting Reeses in the cake batter!
These cupcakes are gorgeous! Well, all your recipes are. 🙂
What brand cupcake mix do you use?
Pillsbury mixes!
How many cupcakes does this recipe make?
Another winner Lizzy! I made these to bring to the dental office I work for, along with a couple other of your recipes. These were everyone’s favorite and I have already received several orders for them! Thanks, once again!
For your peanut butter chocolate ganache, what kind of chocolate chips are you using? Dark, semi-sweet, other?
I used semi-sweet but dark will work fine too!
Lizzy……I made these last week and they were awesome!! Just love the crunch inside the cupcake. You are the “Best”!!!!!
I loved that you posted the “behind the scenes” photo of your set-up. Thanks for sharing.
How many cupcakes does this make?
These cupcakes were amazing! I was pretty confident in the cake portion, but I was a little worried about the frosting…I have multiple frosting horror stories to my name…but this recipe tasted truly bakery fresh and was super simple! Made my BF’s birthday extra special 🙂
What type of oil did you use?
For the icing, do you use salted or unsalted butter?
Can you make it just as a cake? Not the cupcakes
I made these for a Halloween party and they were AMAZING!!!! Super moist, and delicious! I ended up with about 21 large cupcakes.
Oh good! I love hearing that that worked out great for your and your Halloween party!
Can these sit at room temperature? I wanted to use these for a bake sale.
Yes they can!
Great post!!! Can you let me know where you got that standing reflector? Thanks!
Do you think the candies would stay suspended in the batter if used in a cake pan? Thank you
What does the recipe yield?