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. Can’t wait to try the cupcakes!

  2. These look amazing! How do you come up with these flavors? And the kitchen tools are just adorable, the colors are too cute :D

  3. cupcakes!

  4. those measuring cups are adorable! love the colors. very spring-y.

    cheers,

    *heather*

  5. I tweeted about these cupcakes… gotta love social media!!
    http://twitter.com/LeighGunnels/status/10199196079

  6. have y’all thought of writing a cupcake cookbook? it would be divine!

  7. and on another note….these are my favorite of your cupcakes yet! i love the color scheme as well!

  8. fingers are crossed!

  9. This looks so delicious and as a PB & honey sandwhich person myself, I can’t wait to make these!!

  10. Mmm those cupcakes sound delicious!

  11. Pick me pick me!! Those look super cute!!!

  12. Love chocolate, love honey, love peanuts. Definitely going to be making these soon!

  13. do you think the cupcakes would work with agave instead of honey? i wonder…

  14. My mouth was watering so much that my finger slipped and I entered my email wrong on comment #234…oops!!!

  15. Never would have thought of adding honey to chocolate. From your description, it sounds lovey, though my mind & tongue are still trying to imagine the taste. :)

  16. I need some new mixing bowls!

  17. Oh how I would love those! So cute and useful!

  18. I have the Swtichit Spatula and it is the most amazing spatula I have ever used- you will love it! Other than a mini-williams sonoma one I got in a christmas stocking and use to clean out my mini prep food processor, the other 5 spatulas in my kitchen have essentially not been touched since I bought this one.

  19. Oh please please please!

    I love you Love and Olive Oil!!!

  20. Yum! I’ll definitely be trying these

  21. Oh my… looks delicious!

  22. I can’t wait to try this recipe! Thanks : )

  23. Everything you make turns out so cute and beautiful. I can’t wait to try some of these… I have made a list of the ones I want to try already!

  24. I’ve been super craving honey lately, so I might have to make these this weekend

  25. i’m in love with the design and colors of this giveaway!!
    crossing my fingers!!! pick meeee please :)

    lovely blog.

  26. shoot – my last comment didn’t leave a link to MY twitter… haha.

    here it is :)

    http://twitter.com/natwhat

  27. loveandoliveoil Enter to win a Chef’n baking tool set – http://bit.ly/bIWOyp, plus Chocolate Honey Cupcakes with Roasted Peanuts about 7 hours ago via Tweetie Retweeted by you and 6 others

  28. DELICIOUS!!!!! I just love your blog! :) Can’t wait to make these!!!

  29. Quality honey makes a huge difference – I make a bittersweet ganache sweetened a bit with honey and I can definitely taste the difference.
    Also, recently discovered your blog and it is wonderful!

  30. I just made two batches of your double-shot mocha cupcakes this weekend (two, because the first disappeared nearly instantly!) and this will be the next one I try!

  31. These look wonderful!

  32. Would love to have those kitchen gadgets!

  33. I have to agree with Taylor about the peanuts, but otherwise sounds great!

  34. Lindsay,
    These cupcakes look fabulous, will put them on my list to make this Spring. I’m making your chocolate chip cookie dough truffles tonight for my pottery class party on Wednesday night.
    I also tweeted about your blog & giveaway today.
    Thanks,
    Jen B (crackerjen on twitter)

  35. Those cupcakes look yummy!

  36. Aaahhh! I really want these. Also, can I use any kind of honey? I’m very specific about the honey I eat, and want to know if the taste will change drastically due to different kinds of honey.

  37. Something tells me that making these cupcakes with any other equipment would just be sub-par! I would really like to add the Chef’n set to my kitchen collection!

  38. Wow, I’d really love to have these. Today was my first day on the job as a baker, and this would be such a great way to start my new job!

  39. YUUUUUUMMMMY! Great idea!

  40. The cupcakes look delicious AND those bowls/measuring cups are adorable!

  41. Yum, love the idea of honey and chocolate.

  42. cupcakes look delicious- and the bowls look so fun!

  43. oooh pick me!!

  44. I finally tried a cupcake recipe, The Go To Chocolate Cupcake. I made them for my sisters birthday and they were a big hit. This is another chocolate cupcake recipe I will have to try! I love your blog, keep up the great work!

  45. I am baking my way through all your cupcakes. This one looks splendid for tonight :] thanks!

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