Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie Cupcakes

There is no name. No name that could describe these little bites of chocolate peanut butter yummy goodness. I don't know what to call them. They are chocolate. There are peanut butter. They are brownies, they are peanut butter cake. They are topped with homemade PB icing. They are just good. You should make these.
 I started off by seeing a chocolate strawberry cupcake with vanilla icing. That was a brownie on the bottom and strawberry cake in the middle and then the vanilla icing on top. I thought I was going to make those. I love strawberry cake. I don't much care for other cake. But that has never stopped me from eating lots of cake. I always try it thinking maybe I will find a dense, moist, decadent chunk of cake with the perfect light icing. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't.

Well, I did not have a strawberry cake mix on hand. I only had a yellow cake mix. Well, that's boring. So I started thinking... what can I mix yellow cake with that would taste good with chocolate. PEANUT BUTTER...DUH!!!! Yeah. Match.Made.In.Heaven.

Grab:

1 brownie mix ( the kind that will fill a 9x13 pan)

1 yellow or white cake mix

1 stick of butter, room temp

1/2 cup JIF peanut butter (creamy) 

*side note- I will only ever use JIF. I do not believe that there is any other brand of PB. JIF is the only PB that exists in my world. Thank you very much*

4 eggs

2/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 325. Line cupcake pan with liners. Mix brownie mix according to package directions. (mine called for 2 eggs, 1/4 cup water and 2/3 cup of oil)

Fill cupcake liners 1/3 of the way full.
Pre-bake for 5-7 minutes (before adding PB cake batter to it)

Cream butter and PB together. Add eggs one at a time. Alternate cake mix with water. Mix until incorporated. Don't over mix. Put about 2 TBSP of PB cake mix on top of the brownie mix. Bake at 325. I had my oven on convection bake. And mine were done in 16-18 mins. If you don't have convection, start watching at 16 minutes. May take 20-24 minutes. Just watch. When the cake springs back after being touched, it is done. 

NOW FOR THE ICING! 

Grab:

1 stick of room temp butter

1 and 1/4 cup PB (creamy.. JIF)

about 4 cups of 10x sugar

1/3 cup or so of milk or heavy cream

Go: 

Cream PB and butter together. Start adding 10x sugar 1/3 cup at a time. The icing will start to clump into balls. After sugar is added, start to add to the cream a little at a time until it reaches the desired consistency. Spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes. 

Decorate with chopped up PB cups. :)