Two Cuppy Cakes: One Box

I have been meaning to bake some cuppies but without a/c it never seems appealing. Today I was supposed to meet my Mom in Murrieta but she was running late and cancelled so I decided to do something with my afternoon so I baked some cuppy cakes! I started out with Pineapple Upside Cupcakes but I had enough batter for about six more cuppies. After I had baked the plain cupcakes my wheels were spinning as to what I was going to do with them, I had a bright idea that I should try peanut butter and jelly cupcakes. I didn’t have any grape jelly (I really think this will taste better) so I used what I had, good ‘ole strawberry jam. These two cupcake recipes were so easy and I seriously did everything with cleanup within an hour and a half, leaving me enough time to blog about them, take a bite or two and then go to work. What a chock-full-of-a-cupcake-day!

Ingredients for Pineapple Upside Cupcakes and PB&J Cupcakes:

• 1 Box Yellow Cake Mix (I used Pillsbury Reduced Sugar)
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup Pineapple Juice (reserved from pineapple tidbits)
• 1/3 cup Vegetable Oil
• 6 Cherries, halved
• 1 Can Pineapple tidbits
• 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
• 1/3 cup Butter
• 3/4 cup Smooth Peanut Butter
• 1/2 cup Jelly
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Cream Cheese
• 1/2 stick Butter, at room temperture
• Milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix pineapple juice, oil, eggs and cake batter together until there are no lumps.
3. In a small saute pan, melt butter and brown sugar together until completly melted.
4. Spray Muffin pan with Pam and spoon one teaspoon of sugar mixture into each cup.
5. Place one half of a cherry into the center of the sugar mixture and then arrange pineapple tidbits around the cherry. Spoon batter 2/3 into each cup.
6. Bake for 18 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
7. Let cupcakes rest for about ten minutes and then invert them and let rest until all the cupcakes come out clean out of pan.

For PB&J Cupcakes:

1. Use a cake batter of your choice, I used the left overs from my Pineapple Upside Cupcakes.
2. Bake for fifteen minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
3. With a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip add in strawberry jam and place tip directly into cupcake and fill cupcake until full.
4. In a large bowl, combine peanut butter, butter, cream cheese and mix with a handheld mixer until creamy. Mix in one cup of powdered sugar at a time, adding in a little bit of milk in between.
5. Place frosting into a pastry bag fitted with a tip of your choice and frost cuppies.
6. I dusted mine with dark chocolate but any candy would work; reeses pieces, peanut butter cups, chocolate wafers, etc.