Chocolate Cupcakes get the Butterfinger treatment in this copycat Disney recipe. These are no ordinary cupcakes. Filled with fudge and topped with fluffy peanut butter frosting, Butterfinger Cupcakes are magically delicious!
Who can resist the decadent combo of chocolate and peanut butter? Baked into Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies or in Buckeye Candies, this sweet and salty pairing always steals the show.
Why this Recipe is Best
Have you ever tried a Butterfinger Cupcake from Disney’s Hollywood Studios?
- The iconic Disney cupcakes start with the perfect chocolate cupcake
- Filled with chocolate ganache
- Swirled with peanut butter buttercream frosting
- Sprinkled with butterfinger candy pieces.
Writing that description alone has me ready to pack my bags and book a flight to Disneyland. Instead, how about we save ourselves a trip with this copycat Disney Butterfinger Cupcakes recipe?
Impress the Disney fans in your life–and the peanut butter lovers–when you show up to the party with a plate full of these incredible cupcakes.
DISNEY RECIPES: Churros | Dole Whip | Churro Toffee
Ingredient Notes
- Chocolate cupcakes. Make a batch from a Devil’s Food Cake mix or use this from-scratch Chocolate Cupcake Recipe. They should be baked and fully cooled before you make the fudge filling and frosting.
- Butterfinger candy bars. Pulse the bars in a food processor to turn them into fine crumbs.
- Peanut butter. Make sure to use regular, shelf stable peanut butter (not natural style) in the frosting for best results.
Easy Instructions
Make the ganache filling.
Heat heavy whipping cream on low to bring it to a simmer. Pour the warm cream over a bowl of finely chopped chocolate.
Let it sit for a few minutes, then whisk until a smooth ganache forms.
Fill the cupcakes.
Cut out the center of each cupcake with a sharp paring knife (or use a cupcake corer). Spoon ganache into the open center.
Make the peanut butter buttercream.
Beat butter in an electric mixer until fluffy. Add peanut butter, powdered sugar and milk, then beat to combine.
Frost the cupcakes:
Scoop about 3 tablespoons of frosting over each cupcake. Dip the tops of the frosting into a bowl of crushed butterfingers. Press lightly to ensure the crumbs stick to the frosting.
Tips and Tricks
- Don’t waste the cupcake centers! Set them aside and make a few Chocolate Cake Shakes later.
- Enjoy your Butterfinger Cupcakes right away or store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
- When you press the cupcakes into the crushed candies, make sure to cover the top as evenly as possible. You want those delicious crunchy pieces in every single bite!
Recipe FAQs
We used JIF Creamy peanut butter in this cupcake frosting. Any brand works as long as its creamy and shelf-stable (not refrigerated).
Yes, you can but it is more difficult. If you don’t have a food processor, place the candy bars in a plastic ziplog bag. Use a mallet to crush them into crumbs. The crumbs need to be as fine as possible to cover all the frosting, so this may take a while!
You should cut out about a 1 inch circle of the center top of the cupcake. Do not cut all the way down to the bottom. You want to leave enough cake at the bottom to hold in the ganache filling.
You sure could! Baked unfrosted cupcakes hold up well in the freezer for a couple of months. Let the frozen cupcakes thaw while you make the filling and frosting, then assemble and serve. Perfection.
More Cupcake Recipes
Pin this now to find it later
Pin It
Chocolate Cupcakes {Butterfinger Frosting}
Ingredients
For the filling:
- 4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chopped finely
- 4 ounces heavy whipping cream
For the Frosting
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- ⅓ cup creamy peanut butter
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoons milk
For the Topping
- 1 cup crushed Butterfinger bars
Instructions
- Bake and cool 24 chocolate cupcakes. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely before adding the filling and frosting.
- To make the ganache filling, add finely chopped chocolate to a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a small saucepan, add heavy whipping cream and heat on low until it begins to simmer (not boil). Remove from heat and pour over chopped chocolate. Let sit for several minutes, then stir smooth with a whisk until ganach forms. Cool for about 15 minjutes before spooning into the cupcakes.
- Use a cupcake corer, or sharp paring knife to core out the center on top of each cupcake. Dishare the cored out pieces (or save them to add to our chocolate cake shake).
- Spoon ganache into the cored cupcake.
- For the frosting, beat butter in an electric mixer for two minutes. Add peanut butter, powdered sugar and milk. Beat an additional 4 minutes until smooth, light, and fluffy.
- Using a large cookie scoop, scoop about 3 Tablespoons of frosting onto each of the filled cupcakes. Add crushed butterfingers to a small bowl.
- Gently turn the cupcake upside down into the bowl of crushed butterfinger candies, lightly pressing onto the frosting.
- Store for up to 3 days at room temperature.
Notes
- Cupcake- I use our favorite, no fail chocolate cupcake recipe. But since the frosting is the star of today’s recipe, feel free to use a Devil’s Food cake mix!
- Butterfingers. It’s best to create the crumbs using a food processor. You’ll want the crumbs pretty fine to get good coverage on the frosting.
- Don’t waste the cupcake centers! Set them aside and make a few Chocolate Cake Shakes later.
- Enjoy your Butterfinger Cupcakes right away or store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
- When you press the cupcakes into the crushed candies, make sure to cover the top as evenly as possible. You want those delicious crunchy pieces in every single bite!
Nutrition
No need to wait for your next vacation to enjoy famous Disney Butterfinger Cupcakes. The ‘happiest place on earth’ is wherever these cupcakes happen to be–including your kitchen!
What brand of peanut butter did you use?
These cupcakes look so moist and that frosting is to die for!
Ugh… I hate articles like that! But haters gonna hate, ya know?! These photos are GORG! And I am craving a cupcake now… with butterfinger frosting!
Haters gonna hate. No truer words. 🙂
High five Aimee! I completely agree with all of your points here, and I appreciate the balance you strike between presenting food that is beautiful AND natural. Keep it up!
Such a compliment coming from an awesome photographer like yourself Erin. THANK YOU 🙂
Those articles would have me venting a lot too. I’m boiling just reading your post. Would people buy a cookbook with crappy photos? NO.
These cupcakes are insane. LOVE THEM!
I need to find the article and forward it to you…if you feel like a glass of wine and some serious venting, hehe!! I’m not even a great photographer and I was a little miffed (okay a lot miffed).
girrrl sing it!! I love this post!
and um all I want to do is eat this frosting with a spoon like….OMG YUMMINESS PERSONIFIED! EEEEE cupcaaaaakes!
Haha. Ummm, no you don’t want me singing it. Unless you love off key impressions of 80’s songs….
I love your perspective on photo editing. Your photos are always gorgeous and extremely inviting. Yes, there are a lot of failures in my kitchen. Just this evening I managed to blow up a bag of cocoa. Pinning these!
Aww thanks Jennie. I definitely have more to learn, but I’m trying!! I dropped a whole bag of powdered sugar on the wood floors a couple days ago. Not cool.
The food looks amazing! Can’t wait to try this frosting on some gluten free cupcakes for my daughter who absolutely loves Butterfinger!
I agree completely. Food bloggers wouldn’t have jobs if they didn’t make food look the best it could. Good food usually looks good for cameras, and with a little bit of practice, you can make food look amazing, without affects, and all that jazz. Just because we style it a little doesn’t mean it is fake. I’m glad you posted this, Aimee! And seriously, that frosting should be illegal. Oh my goodness YES.
Thanks girl 🙂
That frosting… I’m surprised you had enough frosting to even frost those cupcakes because I’m pretty sure that frosting would have been gone in my house! I’ll definitely be trying this recipe!!
Well, Ummm, no…I ran out of frosting (between my daughter and I we ate quite a bit off the spoon!!
WOW, that frosting looks dreamy! Butterfingers are one of my favorite candies, so I’d be all over this frosting. 🙂
What an amazing frosting! Love butterfingers!
Butterfingers are my favorite candy bar of all time — LOVE that frosting! 🙂
Thanks Ali! Definitely one of my favorites too. But picking a fav candy bar is like picking a fav child, just can’t do it 🙂
These cupcakes look divine!
Great post Aimee! Totally agree-can’t do anything to the food that wouldn’t let me eat it. Especially since that is exactly what we do after the pictures are taken-devour it! And these cupcakes? You know how much of a peanut butter lover I am. I’ll take 12 please!
Thanks Lisa! And the devouring is my favorite part 🙂
These cupcakes with this frosting looks amazing! Love, love, the frosting.
Well said….
There is a part of me that would like to read the article, but then the other part of me knows that I would be highly annoyed. I’ve only been blogging for six months, and I probably don’t have the right to voice my opinion (yet)… But I think it is so easy for those who are not food bloggers to “know it all” when it comes to blogging and photographing food. It’s kind of like people who don’t have children are “experts” on how to raise a child. They don’t have a clue.
What I have found in these few short months is that we pour our hearts and souls into our blogs… And every time I go to hit the “publish” key, I hesitate for just a second, because I know I’m putting myself out there for criticism and possible ridicule…luckily I have been blessed with the greatest support from people I didn’t even know a year ago! What a loving and supportive blogging community this is… And I’m grateful.
I’m still learning the ins and outs of blogging… Not realizing how much there was to it before I began. It’s not a matter of writing a recipe.. It’s preparing, success, failure, learning how to photograph food (presentation, lighting, etc), the stories we share, and networking…
We blog because we have a passion.. And want to share it. So of course we want to put our best foot forward ( although in the beginning I promised to share my failures, so I have to show my ugly side too!! Note to self.. Don’t make promises like that again!!)..so of course we want to present what we’ve created as welcoming and enticing as possible… Shaking my head because the critics have no clue.
I’m going to be completely honest here.. And I admit to boosting the color to my photos before I got my Canon (new.. In the last 3 weeks) because before that all of my photos were done with my iPhone. Crazy, I know…but true. I love this camera, and it’s amazing what it does in natural light.. No boosts necessary! But cropping?? Oh yeah!!! I do a lot of cropping!!
I had to laugh at the presentation plate.. So cute.. 🙂 my daughter Jessica is the one who gets the plate.. I usually say to her: “this is yours, but you have to wait a few minutes”.. She’s so good about it.. But then again, she’s 22 years old… So she really doesn’t mind too much! She will usually help me diffuse the light!
Thank you for posting this.. Your response was excellent, and so..SO very true…
And your cupcakes? Holy smokes man… I am a true cupcake girl.. Cupcake weak… And this recipe will be printed twice. One for home, and one for the cabin…because I know that once I taste them… I’ll need access to this recipe no matter where I am!! Yum… Just YUM… 🙂
Thank you. Just thank you! I’m definitely open to criticism, I just don’t like to be lumped into this “all food bloggers blah blah”. The article was written by a blogger too….
Articles like that get my blood boiling, too. Don’t EVEN get me started on all of that. I could vent for 2 hours and not have it all off my chest! These cupcakes look wonderful and I could use a few! Pinned
I know, it’s frustrating. Of course we want our food to look good on a plate, right? Like I said, you don’t go to a restaurant and get served a pile of food with no garnishes.
So funny that your family gets excited over the Blog Food Plate. My poor family, I don’t blog savory because I CAN’T photograph it for the life of me!! So all boring plates around here.
That frosting looks to die for. I need a bowl of it!!
Well, I certainly don’t think I’m a great photographer, LOL. But the family DOES love the presentation on the plate!!! Nobody else gets garnishes!
I would love to read that article, just for curiosity. I think you explained pretty well what food/dessert bloggers are trying to do for the readers because let’s face it if it looks like crap nobody would bother to look at it, society set that precedents. These looks wonderful by the way!!