Recipe Friday: Chocolate Reeses Cupcakes

Every first Friday of the month means Recipe Friday!!!  Today, I have gluten-free chocolate cupcakes with Reece's peanut butter cup centers and peanut butter frosting.  The cupcake recipe is adapted from here, and the peanut butter frosting is adapted from here.

Ingredients for Reese's filled gluten-free chocolate chocolate-chip cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups almond flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup grape seed oil
1/4 cup almond milk
2 tbsp agave nectar
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
1 doz Reese's Peanut Butter Cups


Preheat the oven to 350*.  Line 12 cups with your cupcake liner of choice.

I use a muffin tin with little posts to make it easier to add fillings.  If you don't have a tin like this, you can fill your cup halfway with batter, place the Reese's and then finish filling the rest of the cup.  If you do have a tin like mine, go ahead and put your Reese's on the posts.  Alternatively, you can also wait and add the Reese's after the cupcakes come out of the oven.

In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder.  Mix together.

Add the eggs, oil, milk, agave, and vanilla.

Now, mix well with a hand-mixer.  Don't over-mix or they won't be very fluffy!

Add your chocolate chips and fold into the batter with a spatula.

Spoon into your cupcake tin.  As I mentioned before, if you don't have a tin with posts, add half of your batter, place the Reese's, and finish filling the cup.

Bake for 14-17 minutes until a toothpick comes out with only a few moist crumbs.  *Note: remember that you have candy in the middle, so don't poke it in the middle when you test them.*

Ingredients for no-sugar added peanut butter frosting:

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 packet of stevia
Splash of almond milk (I usually use unsweetened, but was limited to Vanilla at the time of this post)

Put the peanut butter into a bowl and fluff with a hand-mixer.  

Add a splash of almond milk until you get to your desired consistency.  The more milk you add, the less fluffy it will be.  After you mix the milk, add the stevia and mix again.  

**This is not a very smooth frosting because it doesn't use any powdered sugar.  If you're looking for something with a smoother finish, you'll need to use something like this recipe, which is also tasty.  I used a no-sugar added recipe as my husband and I are avoiding cane sugar.**

Put it in a piping bag and pipe!  If you don't have a piping bag you can use a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off.

Chop Reese's into halves.  

Top your cupcakes with the Reese's halves.  Since the Reese's stuck to their wrappers a bit, they looked like little mouths.  I decided to make the frosting look like fur so I could make little monsters.  I added some chocolate chips for eyes and got a really cute little monster.  I used Wilton 195 to make the frosting look like fur.  

On 8 of the cupcakes, I did not use a tip at all to show you what you can do if you don't have a piping tip.

My sister was trying to snag one while I wasn't really paying attention, lol!

And that's it!  I made these for my dad's birthday / my parents 40th wedding anniversary, and they were a huge hit.  I hope you guys try it!  If you do, let me know what you think.

What's your favorite cupcake flavor?