Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

I am cupcake crazy! I bought a decorating icing gun and suddenly I think I'm the Ace of Cupcakes! :)

Today was Blake's actual 2nd birthday and I wanted to make something special for family that gathered at our house for pizza. I thought of peanut butter and jelly cupcakes, since that is his favorite sandwich!

I didn't have time to go completely from scratch so I used a box of butter recipe cake mix (oh the horror) and followed those directions to make the cupcakes. After they had cooled completely on a wire cooling rack I used my gun to infuse them with jelly. Initially I tried strawberry jelly, but the large chunks of strawberry jammed my icing gun. I then tried grape jelly which worked perfectly. The last time I infused cupcakes with jelly I used the smallest tip. Today I discovered that the largest star tip actually works best.

So that I would be "semi homemade" (holler Sandra Lee!), I searched on the Internet for a peanut butter icing recipe and found one that seemed easy enough on allrecipes.com

It calls for:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup creamy peanut butter

4 cups confectioner's sugar

1/3 cup cream

Blend butter and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Slowly beat in half of the confectioner's sugar. Mix in 1/4 cup of the cream. Beat in rest of confectioner's sugar. Add more cream until desired consistency.

I didn't have cream (let me be honest, I forgot to buy it) and used skim milk and I don't think the frosting was any less delicious. I dislike peanut butter in general but thought the icing was fabulous (not to toot my own horn). I did indulge in 1 cupcake. I have been working hard to lose weight, but couldn't resist. It is better than 3-4 I probably would have eaten a few months ago! I'll just have to work harder at my next workout! The reviews were excellent from my some times brutally honest family, give them a try!!!