Forget peanut butter cups! These cupcakes are the peanut butter and chocolate lover's DREAM with peanut butter inside the chocolate cake and swirled into the frosting on top!
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cupcake tin with cupcake liners. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together sugar with butter until light and creamy. Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing after adding each egg. Add vanilla.
In another bowl, sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In small batches, add dry mixture to wet mixture, alternating with milk. Make sure to start and end with the flour mixture. Beat until well combined.
Scoop batter into the prepared cupcake tin, about 3/4 full.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes clean from the middle of a cupcake.
Cool for 10 to 15 minutes. Scoop out center of each cupcake with a spoon or cupcake scooper.
Spoon in peanut butter until it reaches the top of the cupcake.
Frosting
In a large bowl, cream the butter with an electric mixer. Add in the powdered sugar. Slowly add the whipping cream and continue to mix until the frosting can hold a stiff peak (may take several minutes). If it’s not holding a stiff peak after several minutes, add in more powdered sugar, if need be.
Evenly divide the frosting into two bowls, In the first bowl add the cocoa powder and mix well. In the second bowl, add the peanut butter and mix well.
Scoop the chocolate frosting into a pastry bag with a large frosting tip. Mash the frosting with the back of a spoon while it's in the pastry bag. Turn the pastry bag.
Scoop the peanut butter frosting into the same pastry bag. Mash the peanut butter frosting with the back of a spoon in the pantry bag.
Twist the open end of the pastry bag until the frosting begins to come out. Frost the cupcakes.