Shiver Me Timbers; Vanilla Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl Cupcakes

Shiver me timbers… Here is a cupcake recipe that will make your Halloween a happy one. And if it doesn’t, I’ll walk the plank.

This recipe combines all of my favorite flavors (vanilla, peanut butter, and chocolate) into a sinfully moist and rich cupcake. Factor in the homemade vanilla buttercream icing, and your timbers will be shivering too!

Vanilla Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl Cupcakes by The Joy of Caking

1/2 c. olive oil

3/4 c. granulated sugar

2 eggs

1/2 c. sour milk

1/3 c. creamy peanut butter

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 c. dark chocolate chips

Place 12 cupcake liners in cupcake tins. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, add oil, sugar, peanut butter, vanilla extract, and eggs; beat thoroughly with electric mixer. Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, milk, and flour; mix completely for about 2 – 3 minutes. Remove 1 – 1 1/2 cups of batter from the large bowl and place in a small bowl; set aside.

Melt chocolate chips in microwave for about 1 minute; mix melted chocolate to the small bowl of batter.

Using a small ladle, fill cupcake papers equally with vanilla peanut butter batter. Using a dining sized tablespoon spoon chocolate peanut butter batter on top of vanilla peanut butter batter. Using a toothpick, swirl the chocolate peanut butter batter into the vanilla peanut butter batter.

Bake for 14- 15 minutes, or until toothpick comes clean when inserted into center of cupcake. Cool slightly before moving cupcakes to cooling rack.

Vanilla Buttercream Icing

3 tbsp. butter, softened

1 tsp. clear vanilla extract

1/2 bag (1 lb.) of confectioners sugar

2-3 tbsp. milk

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Add milk one tablespoon at a time to ensure proper consistency.

Once cupcakes are cool, frost and decorate.

As luck would have it, SweetWorks Candy recently sent me a box of goodies to put to good use. I couldn’t resist using some of them to decorate these cupcakes in a pretty Halloween fashion. I just love the bright and flashy color of their Pearls, Sixlets, and Gumballs. Don’t they make the cupcakes look so adorable?

A big thank you to SweetWorks for providing me with the candies used in this post. Please note – I was not compensated for writing this post and the opinions herein are my own.