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Peanut Butter Cupcakes are soft, tender, and loaded with peanut butter flavor. They are A perfect treat for peanut butter lovers!
Creamy peanut butter frosting makes these cupcakes irresistible. Peanut butter cupcakes are fluffy and delicious! For more peanut butter goodness try Peanut Butter Cup Cookies, Peanut Butter Chews, and Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies.
A PB Lover’s Dream
This recipe will thrill peanut butter lovers everywhere. Peanut butter cupcakes with peanut butter frosting is a peanut butter lovers dream! Made from scratch with simple ingredients you already have in your pantry, these cupcakes are easy and scrumptious!
One challenge with baking with peanut butter is that it tends to make baked goods dry. I made several tweaks to this recipe to avoid that. I used oil instead of butter, brown sugar instead of regular sugar, and used cake flour.
When the cupcakes are done, they will have crinkly tops. They don’t raise up much, they stay flat (unless you overfill the liners). Perfect for adding frosting!
How to make Peanut butter cupcakes
DRY INGREDIENTS. In a small bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
WET INGREDIENTS. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the oil, peanut butter, and brown sugar till smooth. Add the eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla and whisk till well blended.
COMBINE. Stir in the dry ingredients just till combined. Don’t over-mix.
BAKE. Spoon batter into paper lined muffin pans, filling just over half full. Bake at 350° for about 15 minutes or till a toothpick comes out clean. Cool cupcakes completely, then frost.
The Peanut Butter Frosting
The creamy peanut butter frosting makes these cupcakes purely decadent. Honestly, I could have just eaten the frosting by the spoonful. It is so good! Just mix together 5 ingredients to make this amazing frosting:
- creamy peanut butter
- butter
- powdered sugar
- vanilla
- milk (or heavy whipping cream)
Note: Make sure that you use regular processed creamy peanut butter such as Jif. The natural peanut butter has a different consistency that will alter the texture of the cupcakes.
variations + storage
Make your own buttermilk: Add 2 tbsp lemon juice OR vinegar to the bottom of a measuring cup. Add milk until you reach 1 cup. Allow the mixture to sit for 8-10 minutes before using.
Make your own cake flour by measuring out a cup of flour, removing a tablespoon, and replacing it with a tablespoon of cornstarch. That’s what I did.
If you love peanut butter these are your treat. To make peanut butter overload cupcakes there are so many additions you can use:
- Diced peanut butter cups to the top
- Sprinkle on peanut butter chips
- Add regular or mini Reeses Pieces
- Chopped peanuts
The peanut butter cupcake pairs well with other frostings such as:
- Chocolate buttercream
- Vanilla buttercream
- Cream Cheese Frosting
Cupcakes can be made ahead of time and stored in an airtight container.
To make them further ahead of time store the frosting and cupcakes in separate containers.
- STORE frosting in the fridge for up to two weeks or FREEZE for up to 3 months.
- STORE cupcakes at room temperature for 1-2 days or FREEZE for up to 3 months.
Leftover cupcakes can be STORED in a container for 3-4 days or FREEZE up to 3 months.
For more cupcake recipes, check out:
- Banana Cupcakes
- Cookies and Cream Cupcakes
- Vanilla Cupcakes with Berry Buttercream Frosting
- Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes
- Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes
Peanut Butter Cupcake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups cake flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 6 Tbsp vegetable oil I used canola
- 6 Tbsp creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 whole eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Peanut Butter Frosting
- 2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
- 6 Tbsp butter, softened
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4-5 Tbsp cream or milk
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the oil, peanut butter, and brown sugar till smooth. Add the eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla and whisk till well blended.
- Stir in the dry ingredients just till combined. Don't over-mix.
- Spoon batter into paper lined muffin pans, filling just over half full. Bake at 350° for about 15 minutes or till a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool cupcakes completely, then frost.
Peanut Butter Frosting
- Combine peanut butter, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and 4 tablespoons of the cream in a mixing bowl. Beat till smooth and creamy, adding cream as needed.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I love this recipe
Delicious! Light and fluffy cake. I love that I can just use a whisk, and I mixed everything in one bowl. I added a little more butter and peanut butter to the icing, but that is my personal preference only. I topped them with chocolate covered peanuts. I would also emphasis measure your flour correctly and not overmixing your batter. Make sure you baking powder is fresh. Thank you for a tasty and simple recipe!
was wondering if you could make this into a cake pan and frost it to and what size pan just wondering. making these for church dessert
I haven’t used this recipe as a cake, but you should be able to! I’d say probably 2 8X8 round pans or 9X9 round pans (for a thinner cake). You could probably even do a 9×13 or a bundt cake. You’ll have to let us know what you try and how it turns out! I’d love to know!
This recipes is a keeper !! Absolutely delicious and light cupcakes !!!
This is so good that everyone asked for the recipe. My nanny doesn’t like cupcakes but she loved it so much!
I was wondering how many cupcakes can this recipe make? Im gonna bake this for my dad’s birthday
It should make about 2 dozen. Happy birthday to your dad!!
Thank you for the recipe…love it!
Made these and they are delicious!! Love this recipe good job
Thank you! I’m glad you love the cupcakes!
Made it and loved it 🙂 Although it only makes 14 normal-sized cupcakes and the icing recipe makes double what you need.
Yay! So glad you enjoyed the cupcakes. We tend to like LOTS of frosting 😉 but that’s great feedback. Maybe worth halving the frosting recipe. Thanks for giving the cupcakes a try!
These were excellent! I was so excited when I found the recipe and I really enjoyed making them. I had to make my own cake flour and make my own buttermilk but that was no problem at all. They were so worth it, thank you!! 🙂 Very good!
Yay! I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed the cupcakes!
I’m a chocolate peanut butter fan so of course I love your tip to add chopped Reese’s cups. Yum!
We LOVE peanut butter over here and these cupcakes were a huge hit! I need to make more this weekend!
My kids would love these!! They sound INCREDIBLE!!
These PB Cupcakes were pure perfection all my PB-loving littles could not stop eating them!
I am not the hugest peanut butter fan, but I love these cupcakes!! They are so light & the peanut butter flavor isn’t overbearing. I love the frosting!
How about a peanut butter cupcake? If you like the cookies you’ll love this version of dessert.
Do I need to refrigerate these once they are frosted?
You can store them in a container at room temperature for 3-4 days. 🙂
Can I use all purpose flour??
If you don’t have cake flour, you can substitute the following… 1 cup cake flour = 3/4 cup all purpose flour + 2 Tbsp cornstarch. I’d recommend doing that before using just all purpose.
I made your peanut butter cupcakes and they were the talk of the party. I’m always looking for a WOW factor dessert and this recipe hit it out of the park.
I like to make homemade sweets for shut-in’s but sometimes I don’t get a chance to see their reactions. However this time I did and the others called me to tell me how awesome these cupcakes were.
Thank you for sharing your recipe.
You are so welcome & I am so happy you got to see the reaction! Thank you!
this recipe was perfect for my son’s birthday celebration. The cake was soooo moist and the perfect amount of peanut butter flavoring. I will definitely use Lil Luna’s recipes again.
Yay!! That makes me so happy! Thanks for using it for his bday celebration!
So delICIOUS! i WAS WONDERING IF YOU HAVE TO USE BUTTERMILK OR NOT, AS I DON’T HAVE ANY.
I have not tried leaving it out, but I would google what you could use instead & see if you have those ingredients. Good luck!
I just got these out of the oven and all I have to say is: wow. These are amazing! If you’re thinking about baking them just go for it! I’m having the without the frosting and they are still great. Going to pair with some vanilla ice cream while they’re still hot! I looked around for a good peanut butter cupcake recipe and they are hard to find, this was definitely the best I saw. Thank you!!!
Thank you for that!! I am so happy you liked them! Yummy with vanilla ice cream!
love peanut butter baked stuff, so thank you for this cupcake recipe, and for the great tips for tweaking the flour and swapping some of the traditional cupcake ingredients to keep these from become to dry
You are so welcome! I am happy to share! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Yummmy Delicious trying it before 4th july
Hope you like them!!