I offered to bake for the soup and bake sale at my church. This was an opportunity for me to not have to bake a ton of cupcakes and get to use a recipe that I would normally avoid for this reason. I flipped through my cupcake books and I just couldn't settle on any of the recipes, so I hit my ultimate cupcake resource, the Internet. I searched and searched and eventually set my heart on peaches and cream cupcakes.
The recipe calls for 1 cup of "high quality jam with lots of real peaches" or 1 cup of "peaches and cream mush". I'm not going to lie, but I didn't even read the recipe for the mush and I figured it would be a lot easier and of course less work and less mess so, I just went out searching for this jam. I ran to the closest grocery store and all they had was cheap peach jelly that look like a jar full of solid orange-y squish so I wouldn't consider that "high quality". Off I was to the next nearest grocery store. I searched all over this store since I wasn't too familiar with where everything was. When I came across the jelly I found myself in a predicament once again. I saw the same cheap peach jelly, a jar of peach jam for close to $5, and a jar of peach and apricot jelly for $3 and some change. I figured I could still keep my integrity intact if I go a tiny bit cheaper and buy the peach and apricot jam. Since the jar looked to be about the cup that I needed for the cupcakes without any left over for the icing, I also bought a jar of the cheap peach jelly. Then, homeward bound!
My plan was to save a few tablespoons of the good jelly for the icing, so to make sure too much didn't get used, the first thing I did was scoop out 3 tablespoons of good jelly and one of the cheap stuff. Then, I continued on with the recipe like I usually would. When I got to the part where I needed to add the peach jelly, I scraped every bit of the high quality jelly out of the little jar into a one cup measuring cup. It proved to be a sticky affair. I used the cheaper jelly to completely fill the measuring cup.
The recipe tells you to divide the batter into 12 cups. Do Not Do This! I made 15 cupcakes and each cup was full. You could probably get 2 dozen cupcakes comfortably. A bunch of the cupcakes baked over, not ideal for making pretty cupcakes for a bake sale. After they were done baking and sat for a little, I took the cupcakes out of the pans to cool. I picked some of the baked over cake off the pan to taste it. Whoa! Right that second my life changed. These cupcakes were incredible and they didn't even have icing on them yet.
Onto the icing. Now the recipe says to use vanilla bean paste, which, from my understanding, is like a vanilla liquid with bits of vanilla bean in it. Not only is it apparently hard to find, but it's also expensive. I didn't even try to look for it. I just used regular old vanilla extract and everything was fine. The jelly that I saved worked out pretty well too. The chunks of peaches in the icing look really good and it also gives it a peachy tint. When I tried the icing, it was perfect. The actual icing was the "cream" in the peaches in cream. It was overly peachy that would make it just a peach icing.
These cupcakes are absolute winners. As I peeled off the cupcake liner from my cupcake, it reveal a chunk of peach and a sticky looking cake. It had a pineapple upside-down cake kind of appearance. Although sticky, the cake was ridiculously delicious. I was speechless. The little bits of peach from the jam in the icing made the cupcakes one entity instead of just a cupcake with just icing on top. The pile of icing on top was not too sweet, not too thick. Simply perfection. I am officially in love with these cupcakes. I can't wait until the summer to make these again! I talked my mom into making fresh peach jelly.
Peaches and Cream Cupcakes Ingredients
1 1/4 c four
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 c sugar
1/2 c unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c sour cream
1 c peach jam **high quality jam with lots of real peaches
Cupcake How to
1. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat eggs and sugar for 2 minutes or until well blended.
3. Add butter and vanilla and beat on low speed for 1 minute, or until well blended.
4. Beat in dry ingredients on low until blended.
5. Add sour cream and beat until smooth.
6. Add peach jam.
7.Divide batter evenly among 12 cupcake liners.
8. Bake at 350 for about 23 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean and tops are firm.
Frosting Ingredients
3 c powdered sugar
1 c butter
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
4 Tbsp peach jam
Frosting How to
1. Mix together sugar and butter until they are blended and creamy
2. Add vanilla bean paste and continue to beat for a minutes
3. Mix in peach jam until just combined.
recipe from cupcakeproject.com
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