Any recipe that incorporates peanut butter in, sweet or savory, is a winner for me. The sweet salty combination works really well here and the hidden later of strawberry jam beneath the buttercream peanut butter frosting makes me happy!
Ingredients (Yields 12-14 cupcakes)
75g Butter
130g Smooth Peanut Butter
100g Soft Dark Brown Sugar
90g Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Tsp Baking powder
120g Plain flour
A pinch of salt
200ml milk
Ingredients For Frosting
115g Unsalted butter
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
415g Icing sugar
130g Smooth Peanut Butter
4-5 Large Tbsp Strawberry Jam
Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 6. Cream together the butter, peanut butter and sugar is a bowl till fluffy. Weigh out the flour, salt and baking powder in another bowl. One at a time beat the eggs into the butter sugar mix. Add a tablespoon of flour alongside each time to prevent curdling. Add the vanilla extract and stir again.
Carefully fold the flour mix into the butter-sugar-egg mix, a third at a time. After you’ve added and folded in the first third of the flour, fold in a third of the milk. Do this till all flour and milk is used up.
Spoon mix two thirds of the way into the cupcake cases and bake for 25 mins or till golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.
Allow the mix to cool. Once cool, using a sharp knife cut at a shallow angle into the top of the cupcake. Make a circular shape and remove this circle of sponge. Beat the strawberry jam in a small bowl to loosen it up. Using a teaspoon carefully fill the hole, not all the way up, in the cupcake.
To make the frosting, beat the butter, peanut butter and vanilla extract together till smooth. Carefully sift in the icing sugar about 1/4 at a time. This helps to remove any lumps. Add a couple of tablespoons of milk if the mix is too stiff.
Add roughly a tablespoon dollop of frosting to the cupcake filled with jam, spread as desired. You could always pipe for a neater effect but I guess I am just lazy like that! It gets it the way of the time I could spend eating leftover frosting 🙂
rachaeldotkitchen 