Peanut Butter n' Chocolate Cupcakes (trial #1)

Since my "almond joy-ish" cupcakes came out so delicious, I thought I'd take a stab at another candy fave- the peanut butter cup. Peanut butter is weird for me. Sometimes I absolutely can't even stand the thought of it, let alone eat it, and other times I can't get enough of it. However, there is something about the PB inside of a Reeses Peanut Cup that is just different and always better than any other jar of PB I've ever purchased. Probably the ridiculous amount of sugar in it.

So today I made a cupcake out of this idea. I have to say both the cake and frosting are a trial. The cake actually came out very yummy and I probably won't change the way I made it- but I  got distracted doing some potty training and I didn't get the cupcakes out in time. So, I think if they were in maybe, 3 minutes less, they'd be much better. The icing though- that def needs improvement. Although it tastes great, it doesn't look great..
Here's what I did:
for the cakes-
1 stick of butter, softened
1 cup of smooth peanut butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups AP sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
I beat the butter and PB together, then added the sugar, then the eggs, vanilla,baking powder, and then once that was nice and smooth, I alternated the milk and flour till fully mixed. This made a ton of batter- enough for 20 cupcakes. I baked them at 350 for 18 minutes but it should have been about 15 I think. Cooled on wire racks.
Now, the frosting-
I went with a chocolate butter cream-
1 stick of butter softened
2/3 cup dark cocoa
2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream
I beat all this together until smooth- what I think went wrong, b/c it seems to be separating slightly, is that I used too much cream. Next time I'm going to try no milk or cream and then if needed use it very sparingly.

After everything was cooled I pressed a mini reeses PB cup into the center of the cake- They have these new loose ones in a bag now that are smaller and don't have the foil like the other minis. Then I piped the chocolate butter cream onto them and topped with another lil' PB cup. These are very heavy but not overly sweet like I thought. The flavor is great, I just have to work on the look!