Martha Challenge #19- Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book.
This is a favorite combination of my husband, the original salty and sweet mix from our childhood. Altho I personally never had a pb&j sandwich, that doesn't mean I can't give the cupcake version a try!
I have made a version of this before, with a different recipe, with similar results. The one thing prefer about Martha's recipe, is after they are baked, the cupcakes aren't greasy. When I tried these before, the papers pulled away from the cupcakes, and after a while you could see the grease seeping through. Not too appetizing.

Here are the cupcakes right out of the oven. I like their color and feel, firm and not too crumbly. The recipe says it yields 22, but I got 24, and could have stretched it to 25. I also baked them for 18 minutes instead of the 22 minutes recommended. They'd be way too dry after that much time.

The peanut butter frosting was a bit unusual. It's cream cheese base, with only 1/3 cup powdered sugar. Also, it says to fold in whipped cream. Well, I folded and folded and it looked like a big goopy mess, so I ended up beating it together in the mixer for a minute, and it came out smoothing and light. I added more sugar, since it was very salty, to about 1/2 cup. It's a fairly loose frosting. It didn't seem like there'd be enough, but I just made it.
I piped the frosting on in a circle, leaving room for the jelly.

Here are the finished cupcakes, with strawberry jelly on top. I made these according to Martha's recipe, but next time I'll fill the cupcakes with jelly too. One dollop on top is not enough jelly. And maybe I'll even make my own from scratch! It was hard to find a natural jelly in the store.
All in all, a good recipe. I will definitely use the cupcakes again, but maybe not the frosting.