The Story:
I love Take 5 bars.
Let me say that again, I LOVE Take 5 bars. Seriously, they are so amazing. The pretzel cuts through the sweetness and makes the entire treat just taste blissful. Most of the cupcake versions I found online use a chocolate cake, so I wanted to do something a little different.
Take 5 Cupcakes
Servings 24 Cupcakes
Ingredients
Peanut Butter Cake:
- 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup buttermilk
- 1 box yellow or white cake mix
- 1/2 cup sour cream
Peanut Butter Caramel Frosting:
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons caramel sauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4-5 cups powdered sugar
Chocolate Ganache:
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup whipping cream
Instructions
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1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line pans with cupcake liners.
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2. Beat peanut butter and butter together, scrape down the sides of the bowl constantly.
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3. With your mixer on slow, beat eggs in one at a time until fully incorporated.
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4. Add vanilla extract and buttermilk.
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5. Add cake mix (sift it before if you need to).
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6. Add sour cream and mix until well combined.
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7. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until an inserted knife comes out clean.
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8. Frosting: Beat butter and peanut butter for two minutes. Scrape down your bowl often. Add caramel sauce (I used store bought) and vanilla extract. Slowly add powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency.
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9. Ganache: Place chocolate chips in a heat proof bowl and add honey and vanilla extract. On the stove top, heat heavy cream until small bubbles form around the edges (don't let it boil). Pour cream over your chocolate and whisk until smooth.
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10. To assemble cupcakes, pipe buttercream onto cooled cupcakes, spoon ganache generously over the top and finish with a salty pretzel.
Gorgeous cupcakes! And I agree, Take 5 Bars are SO GOOD. The sweet and salty is always a winning combo.
How much cream do you use for the buttercream frosting, there isn’t any mentioned?
You can use cream or milk to thin out the buttercream if needed. But it’s called buttercream because you cream the butter and sugar together,good luck!
When I combined the ingredients as suggested by frosting was more the consistency of lumpy cookie dough…I must have done something wrong?
Make sure to .let your butter and peanut butter cream together first. Scrape down thr bowl constantly. Add the extract and caramel. Then slowly add powdered sugar. If its too thick, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of milk
Hi Lizzy! I am actually making these cupcake right now. When I’m making the ganache, how do I get it nice and thick like in the picture? Please let me know asap!!! 🙂 LOL
Lizzy, how do you get the ganache so thick? I just posted this question but it disappeared(?) :p
THIS IS THE BEST CUPCAKE I’VE EVER HAD.
This was my first time making/using ganache, and it came out very thin and runny… got all over the place and didn’t harden like it seems that it was supposed to. Any suggestions or ideas of what I might have done wrong? Thanks!
For the ganache do you use semi sweet or milk chocolate chips?
These cupcakes are WONDERFUL!! The first time we made them, they were perfect, but the second time around we had a few glitches with the consistency of the batter. Could you please help us?
Do you have any recommendations when it comes to choosing the brand of cake mix? We had two boxes to choose from- the first box contained 18.25 oz and the other was only 15.25 oz?
Our butter was soft, but not quite room temp. Is this why our batter was lumpy? In addition the eggs were cold. The batter seemed ‘clotted’ and not smooth and creamy at this point. So our question to you is, what temp should the eggs be at, is it best to have all of your ingredients at room temperature before beginning your cake mix? And is there anyway to recover your un-cooperative batter if the ingredients are not at room temperature? (I am not worried about spoilage, and I promise to use common sense and good judgement 🙂
THANK YOU for this tasty recipe, we love your site!
Sincerely, Pea n Em
Yes, your butter needs to be room temp to not get a lumpy batter. And sadly there is no way to save batter once it goes down the wrong path. To get your eggs to room temp, I will run them until warm water, and then dry the shells and then use them. How that helps!
Thanks like your Take 5 Cupcakes – Your Cup of Cake
I was wondering if you can substitute Greek yogurt for the sour cream? Thanks!
Yes you can!