Henry- My lovely friend and fellow cast member of “Dracula” celebrated his birthday this week. This boy is OBSESSED with peanut butter. HE HAS HIS OWN BLOG ABOUT IT. (Which is actually rather brilliant & funny: @worldofpb) So I had to make a peanut-butter-something for him. Obvs.
Also, a side note, I’ve called these “cupcakes” and I actually used muffin cases. I was sticking with the American theme. But these would work as cupcakes OR muffins, I suppose it depends on how big you want your treat of the week….. I seem to always want it BIG :)
Ingredients
240g unsalted butter
140g caster sugar
140g self raising flour
2 medium eggs
125g smooth peanut butter
180g icing sugar
5 tbsp strawberry or raspberry jam (approx)
(2/3 tbsp milk)
2tbsp cocoa to decorate (optional)
Muffin/cupcake cases, muffin/cupcake baking tray
Makes 9/10 muffins or 18 cupcakes
Preheat oven to 180oC
1) In a large bowl whisk together 140g of the butter and all of the caster sugar until pale and fluffy, the longer you do this the better! Then whisk in the eggs one at a time. If the mixture looks like it is curdling, add a tbsp or two of the flour to help it along. Then fold in the rest of the flour, carefully, until just combined, do not overmix!
2) Pop the cases into the the tray and fill with the batter until 3/4 full. Bake on a middle shelf of the oven for about 18/19 mins, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. They will be browning very slightly around he edges too. Once baked, leave them to cool on a wire rack.
3) For the frosting, whisk together the peanut butter, the remaining butter and the icing sugar. If it’s a little too thick for your taste, add some milk (slowly and little by little) until a little looser. Or alternatively, if it’s a bit “runny” add a few more tbsp of icing sugar.
4) Once the cupcakes are completely cool, make a small hole in the middle of the cupcake. I used a knife, you could use a spoon or an apple corer. Depth-wise only go about half way down the cupcake and width-wise make sure it’s not right at the edge. Something bang slap in the middle of the cupcake with plenty of room around the sides. Fill this hole with your jam!
5) Spoon your peanut butter icing on top of the cupcake (or pipe if you’re being fancy!) then dust with cocoa (if you’re being even more fancy!)
Happy birthday Henry!!!! X
