Reese's Puffs Cupcakes with Chocolate-Peanut Butter Filling

 

I usually shy away from cake mixes. The one time I dared use one, everyone asked me, "Wow, is this carrot cake homemade?" Embarrassed, I threw out some lame, fumbling excuse, like, "No, my grocery store was out of carrots." They then gave me false looks of understanding, that really said, "You took the easy way out." 

       Maybe I'm being paranoid. But still. I was traumatized.

       Even so, when I spotted Reese's Puffs Muffin Mix at Target, I didn't think twice about tossing it into my cart. I'm a sucker for novelty products. I'm also a sucker for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Sold. 

       Although the streusel-topped muffins on the package look delightful, I had a sneaking suspicion that they would taste more like cupcakes than muffins. Here's scientific proof: In a 2012 Yale study, Reese's Puffs ranked third to last in a nutritional analysis of 43 cereals. (The only cereals that fared worse were Pebbles and Cap'n Crunch.) Why? Because the peanut-buttery puffs consist of 34 percent sugar. What that tells me: I should be eating them for dessert, not breakfast.

      I don't need any more convincing.

      I found a handy little tool called the MuffinMeal on the free table at my office. It creates  cylindrical indentations in the center of your muffins (or cupcakes), which just beg to be filled with frosting, fruit, or cream cheese. (No MuffinMeal? No worries: You can also use an apple corer to create holes in your cupcakes after baking.) This inspired me: Instead of piling frosting on top, I would pipe a creamy combination of peanut butter and whipped chocolate frosting into the centers of the cupcakes.

Perfect little indentations, soon to be filled with sugary goodness.

     My instincts didn't fail me. The cake tastes exactly like Reese's Puffs cereal—that is, tantalizingly sweet, made even more so by the chocolate-peanut butter filling. I ate one cupcake for dessert, of course, but then I broke my own rule: I ate one for breakfast, too. 

 
Reese's Puffs Cupcakes with Chocolate-Peanut Butter Filling

What you need

1 box Reese's Puffs muffin mix
1/3 cup vegetable oil
¾ cup water
2 eggs
1 container whipped chocolate frosting
1 small jar creamy peanut butter
Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Minis

Put it all together

1. Combine the muffin mix, vegetable oil, water, and eggs. If you have a MuffinMeal kit, follow the device's instructions. Otherwise, line a cupcake tin with paper baking cups. Fill the cups about two-thirds full. 
2. Bake according to muffin mix directions. 
3. Allow to cool completely, then position an apple corer on the top center of the cupcake. Press down and turn until you've carved out a cylinder of cake. Pull out the corer, and remove the cake cylinder.
4. Thoroughly combine the frosting and peanut butter. Spoon into a large Ziploc bag, and snip a small triangle from one corner of the bag, squeezing the frosting mixture toward this corner. Pipe the peanut butter-chocolate into the the center of each cupcake, using a circular motion and extending the frosting about an inch above the top of the cupcake.
5. Sprinkle a few pinches of the muffin mix streusel over the frosting, then top with a Reese's Cup Mini.

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