The Treat to Start Your Week Sweet

Yes, today is Monday—back to school, work, etc. However, Monday’s don’t have to be completely drab. If you bake a sweet treat, it can help make the day a little more pleasant. But not just any sweet treat, something that is easy to make, but tastes out-of-this-world—today’s recipe qualifies for a Monday sweet treat!

But first, I received a wonderful blog award, “One Lovely Blog” from Taylor!

I will be nominating 10 other bloggers on my next post :-)

Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcakes

Yields: 24

Prep: 20 minutes

Cook: 25 minutes

Ingredients

Frosting:

• 1/2 c light cream cheese (block style)
• 1/4 c creamy peanut butter (I used PB&Co Dark Chocolate Dream)
• 1/4 c confectioner’s sugar

Cupcakes:

• 1 c cake flour
• 1 c granulated sugar or sugar substitute
• 1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 c low fat buttermilk (I used Almond Breeze and added 1/2 Tbsp vinegar and mixed)
• 1/3 c canola oil
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 oz semisweet chocolate, melted
• 1/2 c seedless jam (your preferred flavor—I used raspberry)
• 1/4 c honey roasted peanuts, chopped

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a mini 24-cup muffin pan with nonstick spray.
• To make frosting, with an electric mixer on low speed, beat the frosting ingredients in a small bowl until smooth, about 2 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap, set aside.
• To make the cupcakes, whisk together cake flour, granulated sugar, cocoa, baking powder and soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk together buttermilk, oil, egg, egg white, and vanilla in a larger bowl. Whisk in the melted chocolate. Add the flour mixture, stirring until just blended.
• Fill each muffin cup 2/3’s full with batter. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the pan.
• Meanwhile, fill pastry bag with seedless jam. Carefully insert the pastry tip into top of cupcake. Pipe in about 1 tsp jam. Repeat with remaining cupcakes and jam.

• With a small spatula, spread the frosting over the tops of the cupcakes, sprinkle with peanuts.

..Then you can lick the spoon! And the bowl if you must :-)

Today’s recipe adapted from Weight Watcher’s Best Ever Desserts.