Cupcake

Robicelli's Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Cupcakes

by:
October 15, 2013
16 Comments

All this week, our friends Allison and Matt from Robicelli's will be sharing recipes from their cookbook Robicell's: A Love Story, with Cupcakes, answering our questions, and giving away a book every day.  

Today: The Robicellis' inaugural cupcake happens to combine all of our favorite snacktime treats.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel on Food52

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The first cupcake Matt ever added to the Robicelli's repertoire was “The CPB:” Chocolate cake and peanut butter buttercream topped with roasted peanuts and rich chocolate ganache. Sounds awesome, right? Of course it's awesome -- how the hell can you screw something like that up? Of course, we eventually tired of awesome and needed to go past that to “mind blowing.” So we decided to roll the entire damn thing in crushed up pretzels and pour more chocolate over the top. You're welcome.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel 

Chocolate Cake

3/4 cup cocoa powder
2/3 cup scalding hot coffee
2/3 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Peanut Butter Buttercream

1 recipe French Buttercream or American Frosting
1/2 cup all-natural peanut butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Chocolate Ganache

1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate, chopped
Pinch sea salt

To Finish

3/4 cup roasted peanuts
1 1/2 cups pretzels

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

Photo by Eric Isaac

Want to win a copy of Robicellis: A Love Story, With Cupcakes? Tell us in the comments: What was the first cupcake you remember making? We'll choose one random winner each day, and announce them this Friday! (Unfortunately, we can only ship books within the US.)

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Allison Robicelli
Allison Robicelli is a James Beard-nominated food writer, a Publisher's Weekly-starred author, and lots of other fun things. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, she currently lives with her two sons and four cats in Baltimore, Maryland.

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16 Comments

Faye
Faye October 21, 2013
I remember making Funfetti cupcakes as a kid using boxed cake mix! These days, my cupcakes are made from scratch, but those Funfetti cupcakes are one of my first baking memories.
 
Crystal
Crystal October 16, 2013
First cupcake I ever made was from a funfetti box mix. I still make them for grandfather's birthday every year. It's his favorite xo
 
Kristin
Kristin October 16, 2013
The first cupcake I remember making was from a yellow cake mix box, but it was for my Mom's birthday. I was so proud when she ate it and told me how good it was. She might have been lying, but I felt like a superstar!
 
LucyS
LucyS October 15, 2013
I used to help my grandmother make Devil's food cupcakes. My grandmother (who is from Mississippi) froze EVERYTHING - Devil's food cupcakes, miniature pecan pies, fried chicken, goldfish crackers... Anyway, we would pull these cupcakes - she only ever made tiny ones - out of the freezer and zap them in the microwave. When you took them out they were inevitably hot and gooey on the outside and still frozen in the center. Somehow it worked for them.
 
cgilsbach
cgilsbach October 15, 2013
The first cupcake I remember making was mini-cheesecake cupcakes. A very old recipe - still going strong!
 
BurgeoningBaker
BurgeoningBaker October 15, 2013
The first cupcake I remember making was a chocolate flavored cupcake that had a jack-o-lantern decorated top for my birthday when I was kid.
 
elisabeth C.
elisabeth C. October 15, 2013
My first cupcake was dark chocolate - my mother always bribed me and brother to behave with her sweet magic!
 
Caitie C.
Caitie C. October 15, 2013
Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting! Mom made everything from scratch and thankfully, I inherited that. But grating carrots is tedious.
 
Toshua
Toshua October 15, 2013
The first cupcake I remember making was Funfetti (from a box)
 
miznic
miznic October 15, 2013
Black Forest cupcakes, with my mom. Cooking was "our" time, whether it was a meal, or snacks.
 
josie
josie October 15, 2013
first cupcake I ever made was a samoa cupcake. it was delicious
 
Kathryn
Kathryn October 15, 2013
Duncan Hines yellow cake with powdered sugar buttercream - nothing better when you're an right year old with a sweet tooth!
 
Porche
Porche October 15, 2013
Lemon. I made my brother lemon cupcakes when he went away to college. I was 7.
 
christie
christie October 15, 2013
mmm, that sounds amazing. my first cupcake, not exactly as amazing by any means. it was a st patricks day cupcake. basically boxed yellow cake mix and container frosting meets green food coloring. tasty at the time, but heck, I was in 7th grade and that was 30 years ago!
 
Nancy B.
Nancy B. October 15, 2013
It was probably some Duncan Hines inspired cupcake for my daughter's birthday! The Robicellis' are much better!
 
vee
vee October 15, 2013
The first cupcake I remember making was the classic birthday cupcake. Yellow Cake with Milk Chocolate buttercream, it's still my favorite. :-)