Peanut Butter Frosting

Ahh peanut butter. I love it. Who doesn't? So I've been wanting to make two different kinds of cupcakes, both of which have peanut butter, so I made a double batch of this frosting. Yum-my. Luckily, there was a some left over after frosting two batches of cupcakes (see below), so we could just eat this stuff plain. Just ask Chris or my brother Brian, this stuff was magic. We tried it spread on cookies, as a dip for pretzels, and just plain digging in with a spoon. Chris even thinks it's better than plain peanut butter. Anyway, enough babbling, here's the recipe:

Peanut Butter Frosting

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened

1 cup creamy peanut butter (I used Skippy)

2 cups confectioner's sugar

1/3 cup milk or heavy cream - I actually ended up using a splash or two more because the frosting was so thick

Blend butter and peanut butter together until smooth using a mixer. Gradually add in about half of the powdered sugar and mix well. Add the milk/cream and mix. Slowly add in the rest of the powdered sugar and milk, mixing well until a nice fluffy consistency is achieved. Add more milk/cream as needed if too thick.

PB&J Cupcakes

So the first batch of cupcakes I made was inspired by both one of my favorite childhood snacks and one of Chris's favorite cupcakes at Sara Sara - PB&J. Not necessarily a new concept, I've heard of PB&J cakes before, but I've never made them. I made this method up myself, other than the frosting

I'll admit, I just made a plain vanilla box cake mix (I know, not from scratch, don't judge. I didn't say I was Martha Stewart. Box cakes are very good). After the cupcakes cooled, I poked a hole in the center of each one, then squirted grape jelly into the hole. I had no idea how much was in there and I didn't want to overfill, so I was cautious. Lesson learned - next time use more jelly!! I should have either made a bigger hole or poked 3-4 holes to fill.

Next, frost the tops of each with the peanut butter frosting. Finally, crush up some peanuts or cashews (side note, I have come to love sea salt cashews!) and sprinkle on top for a nice crunch. I topped with another squirt of jelly. Ta-da! Oh and of course you have to have a glass of milk to go with it :)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Cupcakes

The other batch of cupcakes are inspired by one of my favorite candies, Snyder's chocolate dipped peanut butter pretzel sandwiches. I love the combo of sweet and salty, so the combo of chocolate pretzels and peanut butter is basically perfect. 

I made devil's food chocolate cupcakes (again, from a box). Then I frosted with the peanut butter frosting, and topped with pretzel pieces. This was sooo good. Could have used more pretzel though, I'll have to figure out how to get more in there next time. Also, they were crunchy at first, but by the next day the pretzels had gotten soft - fail. But this idea is a keeper, I just need a more creative name for them...