Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

My birthday is one week away and I am visiting with my parents this weekend to celebrate my 29th birthday as well as Father's Day. Last week, my mom asked me what kind of cake or cupcakes I would like for my birthday, and, without hesitation, I requested Peanut Butter and Jelly cupcakes. She made them for me last year after seeing Tyler Florence of the Food Network bake them. They were so scrumptious I didn't want to wait more than 365 days to have them again!

Here's the recipe, with my modifications at the end:

Ingredients:

• 11/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 cup grape jelly (Recommended: Welch's Grape Jelly)
• Candy bars (Recommended: Reese's Pieces, Butterfinger, Nutterbutter, Heath Bar, smashed up with a rolling pin, for decorating)
• Peanut butter frosting, recipe follows
  

Baking instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line a cupcake pan with paper liners, gently spray the liners with nonstick spray and set aside.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt over a large piece of paper. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with a hand mixer on medium speed, until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, the egg yolk, and the vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Pour in the milk and continue to mix until smooth. Pick up the paper with the dry ingredients and gradually pour it into the wet ingredients, continue to mix just until blended.

Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared cupcake tins, about 3/4 full. Bake until the tops of the cupcakes spring back to the touch and are not too golden; about 20 minutes. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, and then allow to cool completely on a wire rack before filling, frosting or decorating.

Fill a squirt bottle with the grape jelly and screw on the cap. Carefully insert the tip of the squirt bottle as far as it will go into the top of the cupcakes. Gently squeeze about 1 tablespoon worth of jelly inside of each. Ice the tops of the cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting to cover. Decorate with your favorite candy.

Peanut Butter Frosting:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup smooth peanut butter

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature

4 cups confectioners' sugar

1 tablespoon milk

Beat the butter, peanut butter, and cream cheese with a hand or standing mixer on medium speed, until light and fluffy. Slowly add the confectioner's sugar and continue to mix until the frosting is smooth, mix in the milk and continue to mix until it reaches a good spreading consisting.

Yield: 2 cups

My family's modifications:

(1) Reduced sugar vanilla cake mix (Duncan Hines, I think?) was used instead of regular cake mix so my Gram, a diabetic, could also enjoy a birthday cupcake (or 2), "guilt-free".

(2) I don't like grape jelly, or real jelly, so my cupcakes were made with Smuckers Sugar Free Strawberry Jelly/Preserves.

(3) Instead of using a squirt bottle to inject jelly into cupcakes, fill a plastic sandwich bag with jelly, snip a hole at one corner of the bottom of the bag, and inject. Be sure to wait until cupcakes are cool.

(3) The frosting was also Reduced Sugar Vanilla, with between 1/4-1/2C Jif Creamy peanut butter whipped in to the frosting for noticeable peanut butter flavor.

Enjoy!