Kid stuff

Well over a week ago, E and I were lucky enough to have our house invaded by chicks. E's cousin, his wife, and their two daughters came into town to celebrate the girls' April birthdays with a Big Apple trip full of girly mayhem and glitter. As someone who spends pretty much every day of my life with (albeit little) dudes, it was a very welcome break from sausage factory life. We wore dresses, visited the American Girl Doll store, played with Barbies at FAO Schwarz, and did lots of coloring and hair combing. Then I made cupcakes, as if you didn't see that coming.

Since one of the girls doesn't like jelly (which makes me think she just has to be an alien being, what kid doesn't like jelly?) I made two versions. One filled with strawberry jam and topped with my favorite peanut butter icing, the other filled with Nutella, and topped with the same frosting with a Nutella swirl. I love these cupcakes, and can't ever think of enough excuses to make them. There are lots of PB and J cupcake recipes out there, but these are my favorite! I wanted to imitate the crust and the softness of the bread in a sandwich, hence the pie crust bottoms and the fluffy cake tag team.

PB and J Cupcakes

Ingredients: 
3 cups Jiffy baking mix (NOT cake mix)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
4 Tbls. vegetable oil
1 1/3 cups milk
Plus:
One batch of dough for a double pie crust
Nutella or strawberry jam for filling
One batch of Ina's Peanut Butter Icing

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease two muffin tins (this will make about 24 cupcakes). Roll dough out to an 1/8th inch thickness. Using a large/medium scalloped biscuit cutter, cut circles from the dough. Press gently into greased muffin cups.


Using a stand mixer or a large bowl and a hand mixer, beat all ingredients until well combined, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed. Scoop batter evenly into dough circle to fill each cup 3/4 of the way. Scoop filling into a small bowl and stir with a spoon until smooth. Drop rounded teaspoons of filling into the center of each muffin cup. Bake for 15 minutes or until tops are golden. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan before inverting onto a rack to cool completely.

Once cooled, pipe peanut butter icing on top of the jam filled cakes and decorate with a berry or berry candy. For the Nutella cakes, add a few Tbls. of Nutella to the icing and stir a few times to create swirls. You don't want the Nutella incorporated into the icing completely. Pipe onto cakes and top with hazelnuts or chocolate candy.

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