Mini Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for my family reunion/bbq...

There was a slight problem with my thinking when I made these.

The recipe I found online was for regular size cupcakes, and when you make mini cupcakes instead of the regular size ones, you can expect the recipe to make almost three times as many cupcakes...

Nevertheless I still proceeded to almost triple my recipe...

I had around 200 mini cupcakes when I meant to only make 80!

But dang were they good!

If you like Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches you will love these cupcakes.

Heres how to make them:

Cupcake Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened.
• 1 cup smooth or crunchy peanut butter (I chose smooth).
• 1 1/3 cups firmly packed light brown sugar.
• 3 large eggs.
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract.
• 3 cups cake flour 

(I must digress at this point to let you know that the original recipe called for all-purpose flour, but I had read online that using cake flour is better for cakes and the like. So I substituted it in to see if there was a difference. The cupcakes seemed a bit more dense and moist. So from now on I will use cake flour in my cake recipes).

• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk

(Another digression: the recipe called for milk. But as before I had read online that buttermilk helps the cupcake with density and moistness. If you can splurge on buttermilk go for it, but if not use whatever milk you have in the fridge).

• strawberry or grape jelly (well any jelly really, just don't get anything with chunks in it as you will be piping it and chunks will clog the tip).

Cupcake Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line your muffin/cupcake pan(s) with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl cream together the butter, peanut butter, and brown sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time. Beat well. Mix in the vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Add the dry ingredients to creamed mixture, alternating with the milk. Mix well.
5. Fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not over bake. Once the cupcakes are cool you can either put the jelly into a piping bag with a decorating tip thats small enough to directly insert into the cupcake and pipe it that way. Or you can cut out a hole where the jelly will go (which is what I did). For mini cupcakes the back side of a decorating tip works well at getting the right size hole. For standard size cupcakes an apple corer works well. Decorate with frosting recipe (below).

Peanut Butter Frosting Ingredients & Garnish:

• 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter.
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened.
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract.
• 3 cups confectioners(powdered) sugar, sift if you are able to.
• 3 tablespoons milk (butter milk is optional)
• Mini Nutter Butter cookies for garnish
• Unused jelly, for piping a dollop on top of the frosting. 

Combine the peanut butter, butter and vanilla in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer beat until light and fluffy, about 1 - 2 minutes. Add the confectioners sugar along with the milk, and beat until well combined. Pipe frosting onto cupcakes using your preferred decorating tip or a ziploc bag with a corner cut off. Top with a dollop of jelly and a mini Nutter Butter cookie.