Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

For the chocolate cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two 12-cup standard muffin pans with paper liners, one with 12 liners and the other with only 6 liners. Spray liners lightly with cooking spray. If you don’t have liners or don’t want to use them, spray muffin tin cups lightly with cooking spray instead.

Sift whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well incorporated after each addition. Beat in vanilla until just combined. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl with a rubber spatula to make sure everything is incorporated. Next, add in half the flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Pour in hot coffee and mix again. Add remaining flour mixture and beat again until just incorporated.

Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula again. Let the batter stand until cooled and slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Then, stir in chocolate chips. Divide batter among muffin cups, about ¼ cup batter each.

Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center comes out with some crumbs attached, 21–23 minutes. Cool cupcakes completely in pans. Top cupcakes with peanut butter frosting (see below). You can just spread it on top of each of them or pipe it on if you prefer. Dip the tops of the cupcakes into the peanuts or sprinkle on top if you piped on the frosting.

For the peanut butter frosting:
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and peanut butter with an electric mixer until smooth. Add milk and vanilla and beat until combined well.

Sift in powdered sugar and beat on low speed until the sugar is incorporated a bit. Once all the sugar is mostly mixed in, turn speed to high and beat for 1 minute. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Beat 10–15 more seconds to be sure it’s thoroughly mixed!