peanut butter swirled chocolate cupcakes

i love cupcakes. what's not to love? small, little, bite sized, sugar coated, butter laden goodness. what's (almost) better than a peanut butter cup? chocolate and peanut butter swirled together in cupcake form. that's what.

what worked

1. the peanut butter filling is amazing. heaven. just don't think you'll have a small taste of the peanut butter when they come out of the oven. the peanut butter is hot hot. and sticks to your fingers like crazy (i burned the tips of three.)
2. wooden skewer worked well to swirl the peanut butter.

what didn't

1. i don't know what it is with martha, but all her cupcakes seem to come out dry. i'm thinking if a little of the butter was replaced with veg oil in this, the chocolate wouldn't be so dry.
2. next time, instead of layering chocolate, peanut butter, chocolate, peanut butter, i'm either going to start with peanut butter or just have one middle layer of the stuff. it all kinda came to the top half of the cupcake instead of swirling throughout.

peanut butter swirled chocolate cupcakes
from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

start to finish: ~1 hr 15 min, makes 12 cupcakes

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
4 ounces semisweet chocolate ( i used chocolate chips)
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

peanut butter filling:
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar (as long as you whisk it, you don't have to sift it)
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
stir together all ingredients until smooth

1. preheat your oven to 325 degrees. line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.
2. melt chocolate and butter together over a double boiler. you could nuke it too, if you want, just make sure the chocolate doesn't burn.
3. whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. whisk the sugar into the chocolate mixture. make sure it's slightly cooled and add the eggs (if the chocolate's too hot, they'll scramble). add vanilla. whisk until smooth.
5. whisk the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture and make sure it's well incorporated.
6. spoon ~1 tablespoon of the chocolate batter into each cup. follow it up with a little less than 1 tablespoon of the peanut butter mixture, another scoop of chocolate, and another of peanut butter. (like i said, i think next time i'll add the peanut butter first or only one peanut butter layer instead of two). the cups will be really full, but they shouldn't overflow when baking.
7. swirl the top of the cupcakes with a wooden skewer, a fork, a knife, or any other pointy tool.
8. bake for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
9. transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before removing. if you try to remove them from the pan before they're cool, you'll burn your fingers on the peanut butter on top. it doesn't like to stay together with the chocolate cake, so not only will the cupcake stay in the pan, but the top will also crumble into a mess. either way, it's no good.
10. they can be kept a couple days tightly sealed, but they're definitely best the day made.