Peanut Butter Stuffed Double Chocolate Banana Cupcake

These Peanut Butter Stuffed Double Chocolate Banana Cupcakes are bursting with rich chocolate, banana, and peanut butter flavor! A peanut butter buckeye is stuffed inside a moist chocolate banana cupcake and all topped off with Reese's peanut butter frosting!

Ingredients

For the Cupcakes:

2 cups cake flour, sifted
½ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
½ cup whole milk
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 ½ cups butter, softened
1 ½ cups very well mashed, ripe bananas (~3 large bananas)
¾ cups mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
For the Buckeye Filling:
½ cup + 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter (I use Jiffy)
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

For Reese’s Peanut Butter Icing:

6 tablespoons butter, unsalted
½ cup evaporated milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 oz Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips
1 ½ cups sifted powdered sugar

Instructions

First, make your Buckeye filling. It will freeze into balls while we make the cupcakes.
Beat together all ingredients in a bowl until combined and the mixture is dry yet holds together. You might need to add additional powdered sugar. Roll into 1-inch balls, place on baking sheet and freeze until you are ready to use them.
Pre-heat oven to 350° F. Line 12 muffin tins with liners. I double up on my liners just to make sure the cupcakes stay moist.
Sift the first five ingredients together in a medium bowl and set aside. I measure my flour by spooning flour into my baking cup directly from the bag until it is slightly mounded. Level with a sharp knife. Do not tap cup or in any way compact your flour.
Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.
Add eggs and vanilla; beat until combined
Alternately add dry ingredients and the milk; beginning and ending with flour mixture. I did 2 additions of milk and 3 of the flour mixture. Mix only until just combined. Be careful not to over mix.
Fold in bananas and chips only until banana is distributed throughout the batter.
Scoop enough batter into each tin to reach halfway up the liner. Press a buckeye ball deep into each tin but not deep enough to reach the bottom. Cover the balls with the rest of the batter. They should be about ¾ full. Firmly tap your muffin tins on the counter to try and settle the batter into any air pockets. You can also use the finger method of pushing the batter into open spaces. The batter is thick so it will not just reposition itself as it cooks.
Bake at 350° F for ~20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with only some crumbs attached. Make sure that you didn’t just hit a chocolate chip because melted chocolate can make your muffins appear underdone. We don’t want that!
Allow cooling 5 minutes in the tins. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
When your cupcakes are almost cool, start making your icing.

For the Icing:

Combine butter, milk, peanut butter chips and salt in a heatproof bowl; cook over a pan of simmering water (Bain Marie) until butter is melted and the mixture is hot to the touch. Stir frequently.
Cool. This step only takes about 15 minutes, especially if you stir it frequently. You want the peanut butter mixture to be very thick. So thick that it will not drop off your spatula.
Gradually add in powdered sugar and beat until thick enough to pipe. You will want it to hold stiff peaks.
Pipe onto cooled cupcakes. If you plan on piping your frosting as tall as mine in the photos, you will want to double this recipe, but I think it’s too much. If I were simply going to eat them, I would have used less.

Notes:

The recipe for the cake and frosting are my own creations but the filling recipe is from Annie's Eats