Kind Lifer Steph sent me this yummy looking cupcake recipe, and I wanted to share. Try it on your co-workers, or at your next get together!

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Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcakes
By Steph

My boyfriend and I are like two vegan peas in a pod (I guess all peas are vegan…), except when it comes to cooking. Don’t get me wrong, we love to cook and have an awesome time when we cook together, but our taste buds are polar opposites. He’ll say “more spice!” when my eyes are watering. I’ll say “less salt!” when he can barely taste the flavor. It was tricky at first, but we’ve learned to challenge each other’s taste buds and it usually works out for the best. When we decided to make cupcakes for a recent dinner party, the recipe was not an easy choice…
I proposed a chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream, which is my go-to. He argued that if we were going to make cupcakes, we should do it right and invent our own recipe. Which we did… sort of (we used the help of some blogs and cookbooks). We decided to combine my love of peanut butter and his love of fruity desserts into a “PB&J” concoction. That was a good jumping off point, but what flavor would the cake part be?

Also try: Jelly Donut Cupcakes!

My friends, if you have not tried peanut butter and jelly on a graham cracker you are missing out. And so, graham cracker-flavored cake was the perfect match for our PB&J concept.
Not only did our friends scarf them down, but the extras I brought into the office were gone within minutes!

Below I’ve included how to make these suckers. You can make the strawberry glaze in advance and it will store for a bit—at least two weeks.
Vegan Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes
Graham Cracker Cupcakes, slightly modified from the S’mores Cupcakes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 1/2 Tbsp molasses
• 1/4 cup soy yogurt
• 1 1/4 cups soymilk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs (Nabisco original Grahams are vegan)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. Mix the brown sugar, oil, molasses, yogurt, soy milk, and vanilla in a large bowl
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt into a separate bowl and mix. Add the graham cracker crumbs and mix it up
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in three batches, mixing well after each addition.
5. Fill cupcake liners full. Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Homemade Strawberry Glaze from FeatureDish.com
Ingredients:

• 2 pounds (32oz.) fresh strawberries, stems removed and quartered
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp corn starch

Directions:
1. Combine the water, strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a large saucepan on high heat. Stir thoroughly while bringing it up to a boil.
2. After the mixture begins to boil, reduce the heat to low, and allow to cook for up to ten minutes, occasionally stirring throughout. As the strawberries soften, use a wooden spoon to break them in pieces to release the flavors from the strawberries.
3. Remove from heat. Using a strainer, pour liquid into a bowl ensuring to press as much juices through strainer with wooden spoon. Dispose any of the solid strawberries leftover from mixture, and return liquid to pan on low heat.
4. Meanwhile, whisk the cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of water in a small bowl. Then, pour into the simmering pan of strawberry juice.
5. Increase heat to high, and continue to whisk the mixture until it thickens into a glaze (about 3-5 minutes).
6. Remove glaze from heat, and pour into separate bowl to cool down. Once the glaze has reached room temperature, place in refrigerator until it is chilled.
Peanut Buttercream Frosting
Also from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
Frosting Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup margarine, softened
• 2 Tbsp vegetable shortening
• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 Tbsp barely malt syrup of molasses, optional
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 1 or 2 Tbsp rice milk, soy milk, or soy creamer

Frosting Directions:
1. With electric handheld or stand-up mixer, cream together margarine and shortening at medium speed till smooth
2. Add peanut butter, barley malt syrup, and vanilla, and beat until very smooth, 2-3 minutes
3. Beat in sugar; mixture will be very stiff.
4. Dribble in rice milk a little at a time, beat continuously until frosting is pale tan and very fluffy.
5. Adjust the thickness of the frosting by adding rice milk or more confectioners’ sugar in small increments if necessary.
To Assemble:
1. Cut a cone shape into each cupcake, remove cone, and cut off the point of the cone. Annies-eats.com has a good tutorial on the “cone method” and some other ways to try.
2. Fill the inside of the cupcake about 2/3 full of strawberry glaze
3. Replace the top
4. Frost with peanut buttercream frosting
5. Eat and enjoy! NOMS!

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You guys are seriously cute! I’m jealous that you two have time to just hang out and ponder what type of cupcake to make!! “Let’s invent a cupcake”… what guy does that? AWESOME!!

Thanks cute people of the year!!!

What’s your favorite kind cupcake? Be sure to upload the recipe to your profile, and I’ll add it to the kind recipe gallery. I may also feature your recipe on the site!