Name: Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 30
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 cups brown sugar; 1/2 cup vegetable oil; 1/2 cup applesauce; 1 1/2 cups peanut butter; 2 eggs; 1 1/2 cups milk; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 teaspoon cream of tartar; pinch of salt

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Peanut Butter Cupcakes are packed with delicious peanut butter flavor. Once you try one, you’ll gobble up the whole batch!

These cupcakes are one of our family’s favorite special occasion snacks. I love to top them with chocolate frosting or even peanut butter buttercream frosting! They are fast and easy to whip up and bake up in just 15 minutes!

How to keep these cupcakes from turning out dry

The key to baking with peanut butter is to make sure they turn out moist. Peanut butter is a drying ingredient so many recipes I’ve tried in the past turn out hard and crumbly.

To fix this, in this recipe we use oil instead of butter and add in some applesauce for even more moisture. You can use creamy or chunky peanut butter, whichever texture you prefer, they taste good either way!

Ingredients

First, gather your ingredients:

brown sugar
vegetable oil
applesauce
peanut butter
eggs
milk
vanilla extract
flour
baking soda
cream of tartar
salt
frosting of your choice

Step by step

Now it’s time to bake! (Full recipe card below)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.
In a stand mixer (affiliate link) or a large bowl with an electric hand mixer, mix together the brown sugar, oil, applesauce, and peanut butter until light and fluffy.

peanut butter cupcake batter in glass bowl

Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.
Combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt; stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients alternately with the milk.
Spoon into the prepared muffin cups, almost to the top, these cupcakes don’t rise much!

spooning peanut butter cupcake batter into muffin pan with white liners

peanut butter cupcakes in muffin pan after baking with no frosting

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for ten minutes before removing to a wire rack. Let them cool completely before frosting them with chocolate frosting or peanut butter frosting.

peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate frosting on white cake stand

Is your mouth watering yet?

Variations

add a reese’s peanut butter cup to the center of the cupcake before baking
stir in mini chocolate chips
top with frosting and mini peanut butter cups

You might also like to try my Peanut Butter Pie, Peanut Butter Blossoms, and Peanut Butter Cookies!

If you try this recipe, please comment and rate it below, I love hearing from you!