Small Batch MOIST Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
This small batch chocolate peanut butter cupcake recipe makes just 6 perfectly moist and tender chocolate cupcakes made entirely without eggs and dairy and stuffed with peanut butter! Topped with a silky dairy free peanut butter cream cheese frosting, you won’t believe these are vegan!
Why you need to try these secretly vegan chocolate peanut butter cupcakes:
We’re lovers of small batch recipes here- in fact, these are my most popular recipes. I’m personally partial to my brown butter small batch brownies (yum), but also small batch brownie Basque cheesecake and brown butter chocolate chip cookies!!
So naturally, I had to make something for my super chocolate peanut butter lovers (ahem, hi, it’s me).
Let me explain. We have a super tender, decadent, and rich chocolate cupcake that has the absolute *perfect* crumb. Filled with a creamy peanut butter. Topped with an ultra smooth and fluffy dairy free peanut butter cream cheese frosting. Finished with a chocolate drizzle, chopped peanuts, and vegan peanut butter cups.
And you literally don’t need any eggs nor dairy to make them (nor egg replacements). Just simple ingredients and a bowl and a whisk!
Ingredients & Substitutions
If you’ve never baked vegan before, please do not worry. These ingredients are super simple, and definitely able to found at any grocery store (though I will note that some of my European readers have noted it’s more difficult to find a good applesauce in grocery stores. For that, you can also make it from scratch!).
For these chocolate peanut butter cupcakes, you’ll need:
- Flour: you can use all-purpose flour or gluten free 1:1 baking flour here.
- Cocoa powder: I recommend Dutch-processed cocoa- it will yield a richer, chocolatey flavor
- Granulated sugar & light brown sugar: you can also swap in organic granulated sugar, but I have found cheaper coconut sugars at Trader Joe’s if you’re looking for a great less expensive option.
- Dairy free yogurt: Just a tablespoon, like how you add in yogurt or sour cream to a chocolate cake recipe. This locks in extra moisture, and it is LOVELY.
- Vegan buttermilk & coffee: this is a simple combination of dairy free milk and either lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. You can use any type of dairy free milk here that you’d like. Then the coffee helps to enrich the chocolate flavor- don’t worry, you won’t taste it!
- Neutral oil: You can use avocado oil, olive oil, or your favorite here! I find oil lends for a more moist cupcake over vegan butter.
- Peanut butter: use creamy and no sugar added peanut butter here!
How to fill chocolate peanut butter cupcakes
I recommend purchasing a cupcake corer (they go for about $7-10). It makes making filled cupcakes so much cleaner and faster (no more cupcake crumbs everywhere!).
Or you can use a butter knife, and make a small hole about a third of the way into the cupcake. You can use the cored pieces of the chocolate cupcake for cake truffles or just as a yummy snack while you make these 😉
Then just spoon the peanut butter into the middle!
What peanut butter cups are vegan?
If you are following a vegan lifestyle, then, like me, you’ve probably scoured the internet for the best store bought vegan peanut butter cups. Sure, we can easily make homemade peanut butter cups, but when you’re incorporating them into a recipe that you’re already making from scratch, it saves some time to use store bought!
Here are a few of my favorite vegan peanut butter cups to purchase from the grocery store:
- Theo Chocolate
- Justin’s Chocolate
- Unreal
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Print
Small Batch MOIST Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 6
- Category: Cupcakes
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This small batch chocolate peanut butter cupcake recipe makes just 6 perfectly moist and tender chocolate cupcakes made entirely without eggs and dairy and stuffed with peanut butter! Topped with a silky dairy free peanut butter cream cheese frosting, you won’t believe these are vegan!
Ingredients
Chocolate cupcake base:
- 1/3 cup (90 mL) vegan buttermilk, room temperature
- 2/3 cups (80 g) all purpose flour or gluten free 1:1 baking flour, sifted
- 1/4 cup (25 g) dutch process cocoa powder, sifted
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp sea salt
- 1/3 cups (75 g) granulated sugar
- 1/8 cup (30 g) brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup (55 g) neutral oil
- 1 tbsp (18 g) dairy free yogurt, room temperature
- 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) hot water + 1 tsp dissolvable espresso powder
Peanut butter filling:
- 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
Peanut butter ‘cream cheese’ frosting:
- 1 cup (226 g) vegan butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (113 g) vegan cream cheese, cold
- 1/2 cup (113 g) creamy peanut butter
- 4 cups (560 g) powdered sugar, sifted
Instructions
- Please read through all instructions. Measure out all ingredients before beginning.
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350F and line a cupcake tin with liners. Make sure for the vegan buttermilk, the dairy-free milk and lemon juice/ACV are mixed together and set aside to curdle.
- Prepare the dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and sea salt. Set aside.
- Make the chocolate cupcakes batter: In a large bowl with a hand mixer or whisk, mix together the neutral oil, sugar, brown sugar, dairy free yogurt, and vanilla until combined. Carefully add in about half of the dry mixture to the wet ingredients and half of the vegan buttermilk. Mix again lightly until almost all of the dry ingredients are incorporated, then add in the remaining dry mixture, vegan buttermilk and coffee, being careful not to over mix the batter.
- Bake the cupcakes: Pour the batter into the cupcake liners, filling the liners just over 3/4 of the way full. You should get 6 cupcakes. Place the cupcakes into the over and bake for 20 minutes, or until the toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool: Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes in the cupcake tin. After 10 minutes, transfer the cupcakes to the cooling rack until they are fully cooled. Once the cupcakes are fully cooled, use a cupcake corer or with a spoon, remove the center/core of each cupcake. You can save the extra pieces for cake truffles!
- Fill the cupcakes: Once the cupcakes are cored, spoon about 1-2 teaspoons peanut butter into each cupcake.
- Make the peanut butter frosting: use a hand mixer in a large bowl to cream the vegan butter and cream cheese until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Then add in the peanut butter, and mix again until the peanut butter is incorporated. Then sift in the powdered sugar in 1 cup increments, continuing to cream the frosting. The frosting should be fluffy. The important thing here is to make sure it’s still cold so that it pipes well.
- Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes: Fill a piping bag with a tip and pipe the vegan buttercream frosting onto the cupcakes. Top with homemade vegan peanut butter cups or store bought vegan peanut butter cups. Serve and enjoy!
- Storage: store any leftover cupcakes in an airtight container and in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Notes
Gluten free: use Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Baking Flour for completely gluten free peanut butter chocolate cupcakes.
Refined sugar free: you can use coconut sugar for the entirety of this recipe, including the frosting. Be sure to process the coconut sugar through the food processor when using in the buttercream section. This will simulate powdered sugar.
