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. I love your mini cheesecake recipe and the banana cake. I run into this blog by Food Gawker like 2 weeks ago and already saved it as a bookmark

  2. Amsing, Cupcakes!! And I even get to sneak into this contest!

  3. Look SUPER yummy!! Will have to try it!

  4. I love to try new and exciting twists on old favorites.
    Joan Clay

  5. These look soo precious! I love the peanut,honey,chocolate combo :)

  6. Hi y’all…This recipe looks great. But here is the thing. I love sweetness, but I just can’t have too much of it. I mean I have very little tolerance to sweetness compared to an average human being. How can I put this? I do love sweetness, but I get tired of it even in a little quantity. So is there a way that I could reduce the sweetness in this recipe? If so, how much can I reduce without actually affecting the taste of the entire product.

  7. Honey Chocolate Cupcakes – what a treat! I got here via a friend’s friend and I love the title of your blog – “Love & Olive Oil Eat To Live & Cook To Love”
    my sentiments exactly!
    Thank you! I’ll be back!

  8. The cupcakes look amazing!

  9. i love your cupcakes!

  10. NOT ONLY DOES IT LOOK, AND SOUND DELICIOUS. BUT JUDGING BY THE INGREDIANTS, IT SEEMS IT WOULD ALMOST BE HEALTHFOOD. WHO COULD KNOCK THE HEALTH WEALTH OF HONEY?

  11. I am undertaking my own baking adventures and I added your chocolate honey cupcakes with roasted peanuts to my recipe book. I can’t wait to try baking these!

    Thank you for adding a little more yum to the world of baking!

  12. I’m salivating! I saw your entry in the Honey BSI challenge and had to come over to see the recipe!

    ~Aubree Cherie

  13. The cupcakes look delicious — in addition to the Choclate Cheesecake which I will be trying ASAP! Thanks for reminding me of the giveaway — a fabulous giveaway it is!! :)

  14. Thanks to all of you who participated in this giveaway! And a big congrats to Cristina for winning. Please feel free to check out more Chef’n products and giveaways on our blog, http://www.chefnblog.com.

    Thanks Love & Olive Oil for this opportunity!

  15. Did I miss the winners??

  16. Oh my gosh. I think I fell in love

  17. honey? chocolate? cupcakes? oh yesss….

  18. Entries for the giveaway are now closed! Stay tuned for the winner!

  19. mmmm delicious :) You are an excellent baker!

  20. Ooh!! Cupcakes!! And I even get to sneak into this contest!

  21. I NEED to try these chocolate cheesecake cupcakes, thank you for the recipe and I love your site!

  22. the yellow of the frosting is perfection!

  23. I also tweeted (@kjpugs, add me if you can since I have protected tweets!)

  24. That Chef’n set is TO DIE FOR. And those cupcakes have my mouth watering!

  25. Love your blog….found it today! Thanks for inspiring me to want to be more adventuous in my kitchen:)

  26. Wow…they look great!

  27. Just found this blog..love good food and good recipes.Thanks for considering me for your giveaway

  28. as usual, fantastically tasty and pretty concoctions posted on your blog!

    i just moved so these baking items would be of great use!!! :)

  29. I love looking at all your beautiful cupcake posts!

  30. I can’t wait to try this recipe! It looks delicious. Thanks for the opportunity to win.

  31. I have not cooked with honey but those cupcakes look great!!

  32. These look soooo delicious.

  33. Love all your recipes. Your chocolate cheesecakes look heavenly.

  34. Came here for the chocolate cheesecake recipe. Found a fun contest going on. So I here, I throw my hat into the ring.

    Do love the blog :)

  35. peanuts– not peanut butter in cupcakes? who would have thought. the gift set looks great–especially since i broke 2 bowls this week!

  36. I love your blog! Your cupcakes always look amazing!!

  37. Oh man, those look awesome! I wanna go and try them right away!

  38. These cupcakes look amazing! I tried your classic chocolate cupcake and fell in love. I will have to try these next…

  39. Your cupcakes look gorgeous and they sound like something my daughter would love. Thanks for the chance to win this great kitchen gear. I have seen these in various stores and seem to always make an excuse not to buy. I’d love to win!

  40. Tweeted

  41. Cuppys look delish. Will have to try. Thanks for a chance to win a great baking prize.

  42. I just stumbled across your blog and you have some great ideas!

  43. Yay! Cupcakes and giveaways! :D Think i’ll give this a try

  44. I love your mini cheesecake recipe and the banana cake. I run into this blog by Food Gawker like 2 weeks ago and already saved it as a bookmark. Congrats

  45. Love your blog. I cook and bake for a small cafe and espresso house and will for sure make your mini cheesecakes next week. Now pick me for the give away. I’ve had a bad week and need something good to happen! Thanks!

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