Love and Olive Oil

Chocolate Honey Cupcakes with Roasted Peanuts

Chocolate Peanut Honey Cupcakes with Honey Vanilla Buttercream

We have some really incredible locally-produced honey here in Tennessee. We pick up a giant jar of raw dark wildflower honey at the Farmers’ Market every few months or so, and use it in everything from tea to salad dressings to baked goods. I swear, once you buy some really good pure honey, you will never go back to the cheap-o store stuff (yes, I’m talking about you, Mr. Bear).

A few weeks back I made a chocolate cake, and the cake recipe I used included honey in the batter. Which I didn’t think much of until we were eating it that night. And you know what? You could actually taste the honey. It was a delicious complement to the richness of the chocolate itself.

So I took that idea (as I often do), and downsized it into cupcake form. Mixed in some roasted peanuts (because as a child who would choose a pb & honey sandwich over a pb&j anyday, I knew they were a perfect match), and topped it off with a subtly sweet and buttery rich honey buttercream. Yum. The honey adds an unexpected note of sweetness and depth of flavor to these cupcakes that you can actually taste in the final cake (surprisingly it does not bake out). Not to mention that since honey is naturally moisture-loving, these are some of the moistest cupcakes you will ever eat. To put it concisely, these cupcakes are all-around scrumptious.

Granted, Taylor has never been a fan of peanut butter and cake in the same bite, and while I had hoped that the ground peanuts would differ from simply adding peanut butter, I still think he would have preferred these sans-peanut. But I am sure he won’t put up a fight when I ask him to help me finish off this batch. I mean, cake is cake, right?

Chocolate Honey Cupcakes with Roasted Peanuts

Chocolate Honey Cupcakes with Roasted Peanuts and Honey Vanilla Buttercream

Makes 12 cupcakes.

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Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup soy milk
  • 1/3 cup canola oil
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup cocoa powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup roasted unsalted peanuts, finely ground

For Frosting:

  • 2 large egg whites
  • 3/8 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1 cups (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line muffin pan with paper liners.
  2. Whisk together the soy milk, oil, sugar, honey, and vanilla extract until incorporated. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix in peanuts. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients and pour in soy milk mixture. Stir until just smooth (do not overmix).
  3. Pour into liners, filling each with 3 tablespoons of batter (cups should be no more than 2/3 full). For mini cupcakes, fill each with 1 tablespoon batter. Bake 18-20 minutes (or 10-12 for minis), or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
  4. To make buttercream, combine the sugar, honey, and egg whites in a large heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, 7-10 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like melted marshmallow cream. Remove from heat and transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer, and whisk on high speed until mixture is completely cooled and stiff peaks form, about 6-10 minutes. Add butter, 2 tablespoons at a time, on low speed, mixing well after each addition. If at any point mixture looks separated or curdled, stop adding butter. Increase speed to high and beat until mixture smooths out again. Reduce speed, and continue adding remaining butter. Beat in vanilla and food coloring (if desired). Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.
All images and text © / Love & Olive Oil

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446 Comments

  1. OhBoy—those look REALLY Yummy….and the CupCakes do too!

  2. Your cupcakes look fabulous, and I really would like to win your giveaway.

  3. Two of my favorite things…chocolate and honey…can’t wait to try these cupcakes..they look so good!!

  4. These look delicious! I’m so glad I came across your blog, I love chef’n!

  5. I love your recipes and have shared your blog with many friends – cooks and non-cooks alike.

  6. Can’t wait to try these amazing cupcake recipes! Thanks for sharing!

  7. Honey cupcake? Sounds delicious! :)

  8. i love your site! I ‘ve already made one of your recipes(almond cupcakes)!!

  9. Woot woot! Sign me up. Awesome.

  10. We’ve been on a cupcake trip lately, can’t wait to try this recipe!

  11. What a wonderful give-away! I would love to receive this!

    aly

  12. This recipe looks amazing, and I cannot wait to try it! I just made your Chocolate Amaretto butter cream cupcakes for a birthday this weekend and they were a huge hit. Just discovered your site and can’t wait to try more!

  13. cupcake looks great, yummmmmm

  14. These cupcakes look sooooo good! And I love Chef’n products!!

  15. These look delicious! I never thought of trying honey.

  16. Excellent!

  17. Just ordered the silicone flower molds from another cupcake you made. Great ideas and recipes!

  18. Yummy Cupcakes :)

  19. Hey Lindsay, I’m a new reader and I made your Raspberry Truffle Cupcakes over the weekend (except I used black raspberry, and made raspberry vanilla buttercream instead of ganache) and they are totally amazing! Love your blog; thanks for all the new ideas!

  20. Chocolate and honey-what a perfect combination. I’m going to try this with a mild olive oil (there are even books about baking with it, and so far it has been yummy), and some whole wheat pastry flour.

    The Chef’n things sound great too!

  21. There is nothing that says “Spring” like farmer’s market honey! These look delicious! (As does the giveaway!)

  22. Yum!! A delicious cupcakes (I’m making tonight) AND a give away!! Yay! Off to the store!

  23. Those cupcakes look awesome. I’ll have to make some minus the peanuts (but I do agree cake is cake xD).

  24. This Recipe looks amazing, a friend of mine just forwarded me a link to your website and i am in love with everything your doing…..so so so great.

  25. I’m the biggest Chef’n fan girl and that bake set looks ah-mazing!

    And your cupcakes look so pretty. I’ve never considered the chocolate/honey combination, but now I definitely am!

  26. I would never thought of using Olive Oil for Cupcakes, or baking for that matter. Looking forward to trying the recipe. Thank you.

  27. YUMMO! These look delicious!!!!!!!

  28. Those cupcakes are super cute! And I wouldn’t mind those prizes either!

  29. Can’t wait to try the recipe! They look SO yummy!

  30. I’m going to make those cupcakes RIGHT NOW. That fact that it’s 9:30am won’t stop me.

  31. The boyfriend LOVES honey; I’ll have to make these for him!!

  32. Soo cute! These recipes are like torture for my pregnant cravings!

  33. Oh yum, maybe I’ll try it with almonds! I wonder how you could use the honey method in more of a muffin? I bet it’d be delicious!

  34. LOVE the colorful cookware!
    Can’t wait to try the yummy cupcakes.

  35. Sounds absolutely delightful! A great spring treat! And what fun and colorful mixing and measuring utensils!

  36. I’m a Tennessean too, and yes, our honey is to die for!

  37. I looove honey. Delicious looking! (And delicious tasting, I’m sure!)

  38. After a long holiday season that felt more like a two-month-long cupcake and cookie binge, I needed a break. But I think that break will be coming to an end. Must try this recipe!

  39. Wow! these sound amazing and look so Spring-y!
    I never would have thought of putting honey and chocolate together. I’m definitely trying them. :)

  40. Honey and Chocolate sounds like a great combination! I’ll definitely try these out! And those baking supplies? Completely adorable. I’d love a set of those for my kitchen! Thanks so much for everything you do on your blog! You’re definitely one of my inspirations.

  41. Facebook’ed! Heck it don’t matter if I win or lose. I like telling people about your blog and the neat things you do with cupcakes :)
    http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/profile.php?id=536423889

  42. Those look divine and I would LOVE to win the gift set!

  43. Hey Lindsey,
    Another recipe that looks amazing, if only I had more time to cook.
    It will have to go on the list though of things to try!

  44. My tiny kitchen would love these measuring cups

  45. I LOVE and ADORE your cupcakes! I would love to try to make some soon for a bachelorette party, and wouldn’t these utensils be a nice way to do it! Or else, I’m going to throw myself an “I’m single but still need to stock up on kitchen gadgets” shower.

  46. Oooooh, these look delicious! I can’t wait to try it!

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