Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

Annie's Eats

My hope is to inspire you to be fearless in the kitchen, to try new things, to take the time to make things the homemade way and most importantly, to have fun doing it!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

32 comments

posted in: Cupcakes, Dessert

01.27

2012

Okay, confession time: When I was a kid, I didn’t like peanut butter and jelly. Weird, right? I think it had something to do with the thick, sticky texture of peanut butter. I did not like the way it stuck to the roof of my mouth, not one little bit. My dietary staple was either a cheese sandwich (what Andrew now refers to as a “regular sandwich”) or a grilled cheese. Now, I’ll still take a grilled cheese over PB&J any day, but I have finally come around on the combination of peanut butter and jelly. I think it was sometime during college or maybe med school that I began making them out of necessity more than anything – the quickest, easiest thing I could grab to take with me that didn’t need refrigeration. In any case, I am now a total convert and have seen the error of my ways.

I made PB&J cupcakes last year for a coworker’s birthday and while they were good, they were a bit too dense and peanut buttery for me. (I have previously discussed my strong feelings on the balance between the peanut butter and jelly components.) This time around, I used a lighter, fluffier frosting and made minor changes to the cake to create a lighter crumb. I was much happier with these results. Give them a try, and be sure to enjoy with a big glass of milk!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

Yield: about 22 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
12 tbsp. (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
3 large eggs
½ cup sour cream (reduced fat is fine)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup buttermilk

For the filling and topping:
Grape and/or strawberry jam

For the frosting:
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
Pinch of coarse salt
1½ tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. heavy cream

Directions

To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Blend in the peanut butter. Beat in the eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Blend in the sour cream. With the mixer on low speed, mix in half of the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated. Mix in the buttermilk and then the remaining dry ingredients, mixing each addition just until combined.
Divide the batter between the prepared liners filling each about 2/3 full. Bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, rotating the pans halfway through baking. Let cool in the pans a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before proceeding.
To fill the cupcakes, use the cone method to hollow out the cupcakes. (I preferred using a small paring knife for these cupcakes.) Cut the tip portion off of each cone and discard, reserving a disc from each to cover the filling. Fill each cupcake with a small spoonful of grape or strawberry jam. Replace the cake discs over the filling.
To make the frosting, combine the butter and peanut butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until smooth. Mix in the confectioners’ sugar and salt. With the mixer on low speed, mix in the vanilla and cream just until incorporated. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high and whip until light and very fluffy, about 4 minutes. Transfer the frosting to a pastry bag fitted with a plain round tip (I used Ateco #809). Pipe a swirl of frosting on top of each cupcake. Use the tip of a small offset spatula or a small spoon to scoop an indentation out of the center of the frosting. Fill the indentation with a small spoonful of jam.

Source

cupcakes adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes, frosting an Annie original

Sugarswings

Looks great! My kids have peanut and tree nut allergies so I never bake peanut butter stuff, since me and hubby would be forced to eat it all! I was the same way as a kid with pb&j!
http://www-the-baker-chick.com/ Audra

I am loving these! You made them look so darn cute too. I’m sure you have some happy co-workers!
http://twitter.com/jillianmanger Jillian Manger

These look amazing! I’m a huge PB&J fan, so will definitely have to give these cuties a try!:)
Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar

These cupcakes seriously rock my world!
http://www.blognewblack.com/ Blog is the New Black

Adorable and AMAZING! :)
MeM

You are my hero.
Emilie @ Emilie’s Enjoyables

PB & J is one of my favorite combos and I’m VERY excited to see your recipe for them in cupcake form :)
http://sweetnaturedtreats.blogspot.com/ AngiesSweetTreats

Adorable, as usual. I really like the little bit of jelly poking through the top.
I was also the weird kid who didn’t like PB&J, and much preferred grilled cheese, or sometimes just jelly sandwiches. I’ve finally come around to liking PB&J. Have you ever tried a grilled PB&J? That’s what finally converted me. They’re pretty amazing.
Janaya

Annie – my feelings about pb&j sandwiches and yours could not be more alike… It was not until dental school that my thoughts about them changed! Cannot wait to try these.
Adrienne

Not too weird: I hated peanut butter until I was forced to try a Reese’s peanut butter cup in my second or third year in college. That was the first time I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as well! I just wasn’t raised on it since my mother isn’t a peanut fan. You are not alone.

As for the cupcakes, they look gorgeous and sound like an interesting combo. I think I’ll be putting them near the top of my list of recipes to try :)
http://www.tiptopshape2.blogspot.com/ Liz @ Tip Top Shape

These look fantastic!!
Anonymous

No, but I have seen them and love the idea! I also saw an episode of Iron Chef where they made a pb&j stuffed french toast that looked pretty amazing. That’s on my list to try too!
Anonymous

My favorite childhood sandwich in cupcake form?! Yes, please.
http://theavidappetite.com/ Rachel @ The Avid Appetite

Gorgeous! I’m still known to bring a pb+j sandwich to work every now and again. I love the cupcake form! And I love your sweet gingham liners :)
Kelsey

I didn’t like PB&J as a kid, either. I came around to it during college. Even though I didn’t like it as a kid and my mom never made it for me, it seemed like comfort food when I was nearly 2,000 miles from home. If someone had given me PB&J cupcakes as a kid, it might have been a different story.
Rebekah

Davy would absolutely LOVE these! We have been making “triple decker” PPJ sandwiches for his lunch.
Heather@Kids in the Sink

I like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and I have seen the two flavors in cupcake form, but I have never tried. Something about taking peanut butter and jelly out from its bread home kind of freaks me out. But I think my kids could really get behind something like this and who knows, maybe I’ll be converted to liking pb&j in other ways. These cupcakes definitely look good enough!!
http://www.thejohnslife.com/BabycakesBlog/ Tina @ Babycakes Blog

Yum, those look delicious! I know my 3 year old would love those, she is so into “jam” (she calls all fruit spreads jam.) I love peanut butter, so those would make me happy too.
http://fashionisevolution.blogspot.com/ Célèste

I love these. They again got pinned to my cupcakes board on Pinterest of course. I made PBJ cupcakes once, but the jelly was hidden under the peanut butter frosting. These are much cuter. In fact, they look a lot like some PBJ thumbprint cookies I just made, seen here: http://fashionisevolution.blogspot.com/2012/01/peanut-butter-and-jelly-cookies-recipe.html
Anonymous

Haha, that’s awesome! He’ll have to make me one sometime.
http://caitlinisagirlygirl.blogspot.com/ Caitlin-a girly girl

These look great! I love the little hole for jelly, it looks like a thumbpint cookie!
http://twitter.com/SoDomesticated Emily

These look absolutely delicious!
Laceymelt

My little mans birthday isn’t until June, but I just pinned it on my Pinterest page for his party! He would literally eat a pb&j every day if I let him! Thank you so much for sharing….he is going to flip!
http://twitter.com/floptimism Jess @ Floptimism

Lately I can’t get enough of finding new ways of enjoying the PB&J combo – and now I know a recipe for making it in cupcake form?? I think I may have just heard angels from heaven start to sing.

Seriously, I don’t comment all the time, but from afar I always love the flavors and combinations you come up with!
http://dinnersdishesanddesserts.com/ Erin

These look beautiful – I love the jelly filling! I like a good pb&j sandwich every now and then, but pb&j desserts are new to me. I made muffins once, so I am going to have to branch out and try these!
Anonymous

Please see the FAQ page re: what went wrong. Mine didn’t have cracked tops so I’m not sure why that would have happened.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Paula-Braman-Duarte/100000682511378 Paula Braman-Duarte

Inspiration! I never liked a pb and j as a kid either but then again I didn’t like grilled cheese either, go figure. This cupcake looks delightful and I’m so glad our taste buds develop as we grow up.
http://woodstockwardrobe.com/ Dana

You are a genius! I love PB&J and Cupcakes..this is perfection!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Marsha-Sullivan/694486975 Marsha Sullivan

I think it’s funny that Andrew calls cheese sandwiches “regular” sandwiches. In our house, grape jelly is called “regular” jelly!
http://www.facebook.com/chaoticlilshadow Crystal Sanders Thompson

My husband is addicted to peanut butter and jelly, so I HAVE to make these for him! LOL Thanks to the recipe!
Carrie

I made these this weekend and gave them out as early valentines gifts, everyone agreed that these cupcakes were fabulous! Thanks for a great recipe
Shanna Watson

Too funny…i didn’t like PB&J as a kids (still don’t) and my family calls a grilled cheese “cheese sandwiches”. I have been met with some odd looks when I say cheese sandwich and can’t figure that out for the life of me.