Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

I decided to make cupcakes again last night. I tried a recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting, with chopped up peanut butter cups sprinkled on top. I LOVE the frosting, but the cake was a bit lacking. I think it needed to be WAY more chocolatey, and more moist. I know the easy solution to fix the chocolatiness is to add more cocoa powder. I am not sure about how to make it more moist.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes

2 1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter, creamy
3 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. baking soda
3 Tbls. cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients and mix on low for 30 seconds, scraping bowl. Mix on high for 3 minutes, scraping bowl after each minute. Fill cupcake tins 1/2-2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Yield: 24-36 cupcakes.

* I got about 22 cupcakes, but probably filled some too high, so I could have gotten about 24.

Peanut Butter Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter, creamy
3 Tbls. milk
2 cups powdered sugar

Mix peanut butter and butter until creamy. Add sugar, and milk alternately. Beat 3 minutes until light anf fluffy.

* I actually halved this recipe, and it turned out to be plenty for 2 dozen cupcakes. I did probably add the full 3 Tbls of milk however, because when I was done mixing the frosting for 3 minutes, it wasn't very creamy or spreadable. i added a bit more milk to reach the consistency I wanted.

I chopped up some peanut butter cups nd sprinkled them on the top! They look really cute!