Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

I have been a bad, bad, blogger. I haven't updated my blog since May! Things have been busy around our house. My husband Alex and I recently purchased a business in our hometown of Denton, Texas. The store that we purchased is called the "All Pure Water" store. They specialized in selling purified water, along with plastic bottles. Alex and I are beginning to add more items to the store, with the intent of making the store a full service aquarium shop. Anywho....

Recently Alex's family and my family got together for a little cookout. My father-in-law Randy had been asking me for Peanut Butter cupcakes for quite some time. And his birthday last year was right before our wedding, so I was unable to make them for the occasion. Here they are:




The cake was fairly simple to make. The frosting, however, was a little bit of a nightmare. I don't usually have good luck with frostings that require preparation on the stove top. I'm more of a "buttercream frosting in the stand mixer" kind of girl. But I went with it anyway, because the other recipe I found called for shortening, and I really don't like using shortening in my baking. Something about it kind of grosses me out....weird, I know.

It seemed like the cupcakes were a little bit of peanut butter overload, so I injected some of them with strawberry jam. I don't know if it really helped all that much. I was disappointed in these cupcakes, but this is how I learn what works and what doesn't. At least they look pretty! :)