I am continuing the theme of peanut butter, if you don’t mind. I’m sure you don’t. Who would? And if you do mind, then you must not like peanut butter, and you might not also like marshmallow fluff from the jar, or even jelly. And then what kind of person would you be?

On my last bloggy post, I talked about peanut butter by itself, and shared a PB cookie recipe. This post is about peanut butter with jelly. I love peanut butter and jelly. I love it on a sandwich. I love it when it’s made into other things (candy, cookies, cake, etc.). I love the combination. There is just something about the soft bread, nutty, almost salty spread, and sweet jelly. Did you know that the average American will have consumed 1,500 PB&J sandwiches by the time they turn 18? I believe it! That statistic might even be doubled in my house!

Yes, our love for PB&J sandwiches runs deep.

I think I also love the connection between them and cafeterias and school lunches. You may remember my love for all things cafeteria. I’m sure my love for the two are somehow tethered together. Do you remember your Lunch Lady from school? Was she scary? They are always scary in the books I read, growing up. I’m not sure why she’s made out to be the villain. Perhaps, because she’s the one slopping up that quintessentially icky cafeteria food (which I happen to find both delightful and intriguing)?

I bet if your Lunch Lady served these cupcakes, as a lunch dessert, instead of that old stale cookie, you’d love her. You would probably lose your fear for her sweaty-plastic-glove-and-hairnet-wearing self.

You’d probably want to envelope her in a huge hug, thanking her for making these wonderfully clever and delicious cupcakes.

You’d probably ask her if she had any icy, cold milk to go with these.

This is starting to sound like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

But trust me. You’d ask for milk, and a hug, and another cupcake for the road.

Probably. Or maybe that’s just me.

I made these cupcakes for our Friday playdate. We ate them in celebration of my Small’s 2nd birthday (which was earlier in the week).

The actual cupcake was rich, and dense, and peanut-buttery, in all the best ways. When they were baking, the most amazing smells were filling my house. One had to have been a peanut butter lover to really enjoy this cupcake.

The frosting was a light and fluffy, creamy, peanut-buttery buttercream. It took the cupcakes to another level.

After liberally frosting them, I put a dollop of grape jelly on some and raspberry jelly on others. It cut the peanut butter flavor and really made these taste like the upgraded version of a PB&J sandwich.

I think everyone enjoyed them. I sure did. They were wonderful, and not difficult to make at all.

I highly recommend them!

Here is the recipe:

http://cookiesandcups.com/the-lunchtime-cupcake/

I changed it a little. I did not put a filling inside the cupcake. I doubled the cake recipe (to make 24) and halved the frosting recipe. These kids did not need sky-high frosting! These cupcakes would be delicious with crunchy PB (I always fear that if I am making them for little mouths, they could potentially choke on peanut pieces, so I stick [get it? stick, like stick to the roof of your mouth!?!!] with creamy) and also with marshmallow fluff instead of jelly…or both.

Have a blessed Saturday and may it be as fun as these cakes!

Kristin