Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

We went to a BBQ for our exchange student and I wanted to bring something fun. I went to the cupboard and thought why not Peanut Butter cupcakes then I had some Jelly left and thought what a perfect combo for a cupcake. I did a Google Search and found PopSugar posted Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes. The only thing I would change was blend the jelly or use a jam so it didn't have big clumps of strawberries (was a little hard to pipe onto the cupcake).

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

1 box yellow cake mix
1 1/4 cups water
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
For the frosting:
1/2 cup heavy cream
6 ounces cream cheese
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the filling:
1 cup grape or strawberry jam

Directions

1. To make cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350ºF and place mini baking liners in mini muffin tins.
2. In a large bowl, beat together cake mix, water, peanut butter, vegetable oil, and eggs until combined. Divide batter into mini cupcake wells, filling each well about 2/3 full. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool.
3. To make frosting: Meanwhile, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or using a hand mixer, whisk heavy cream until soft peaks form.
4. In another large bowl, beat together cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, salt, peanut butter, and vanilla on medium speed, until combined. Then carefully fold the whipped cream into the peanut butter icing until smooth and fluffy.
5. To assemble cupcakes: Fit a piping bag with a pipping tip, then fill the bag with jam. Inject the tip into the center of each cupcake and squeeze to fill the center of the cupcake with jam, just until it swells but does not overflow.
6. Into a second piping bag, fill jam on one side and peanut butter frosting on the other side. Pipe frosting into a swirl on each cupcake. Let cupcakes set in the fridge for about 15 minutes before serving.

ALEXIS NOTES: I made regular size cupcakes, easy to travel with since I have cupcake holders I use for my charity cupcakes. I used my cupcake center tool to take out the centers to inject the jelly.

Enjoy!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.