Nutter Butter Surprise Cupcakes!

Chocolate and peanut butter is one of my very favorite combinations, so when my sister found this recipe, I just knew these would be the cupcakes for me! The original recipe is from Inside BruCrew Life. You can find it here if you want to make the exact recipe. They are super easy, and super tasty! Here's how I made them...

Step 1: Make the Nutter Butter Suprise

4 Basic Steps for this part:

1. Crush up 1/2 a package of Nutter Butter cookies in a bowl.
2. Put in a blob (about 1/2 a cup of each) of peanut butter and cream cheese, and a tsp. vanilla extract. 
3. Mix it all together.
4. Roll the mixture into small balls and put them in the fridge for about an hour. I didn't know how small was small, so mine turned out like this:

FYI: Next time I would make them a little smaller.

Step 2: Make the Brownies

This is the easiest step - Just buy a box of your favorite brownie mix. {Mine happens to be the Ghirardelli with chocolate chips in the mix.} Mix it up according to the directions on the box.

Step 3: Puttin' It All Together

This is where it gets a little more complicated.... 

1. Put cupcake papers into a cupcake tray (about 12). Cover the bottom of each paper with about 2 tsp. of brownie batter.
2. Place a Nutter Butter ball into each cupcake. Don't smoosh it all the way down.
3. Cover up the Nutter Butter ball with more brownie batter.
4. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

*This is why I would make the balls smaller next time. Mine were so big that it was hard to get them covered all the way with batter. My other idea would be to make them flat discs instead of balls next time.

Step 4: Frosting!

While the cupcakes are baking, make your frosting. This frosting turned out so good that I need to give you the recipe...

Mix together 1 stick butter, 1/2 tsp. vanilla, 2 Tbs. milk, and a pinch of salt. Add about 1 3/4 c. powdered sugar and 1/4 c. dark cocoa powder. If it's too thick, add a little more milk. If it's not thick enough, add a little more powdered sugar.

Let your cupcakes cool, then frost them up with this. Delicious!

P.S. I also had a bunch of left over Nutter Butter balls, so I decided to dip them in chocolate (like cake balls) and they turned out pretty tasty, too