And I don't even like peanut butter

I am going to show you a picture. This picture serves the purpose of proving that looks can be deceiving and that you can't judge a book by its cover and whatever other similar trite adage you can come up with. This cupcake is not a beautiful cupcake. It's a little misshapen. The frosting is not smooth and creamy. You can't tell (thanks to the covering of the not smooth and not creamy frosting), but the cupcakes are also sunken in the middles. When I pulled the first batch out of the oven, I was bummed because they looked so sad and pathetic.

Not pretty, is it?

However... My son said they were phenomenal. His exact word. I agree with him. So I will share my recipe with you, taken from The All New Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School Cookbook, Tenth Edition (published in 1970, the year of my birth).

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

At their best when freshly baked

Put paper baking cups in muffin tins (16 or more, according to size). Set the oven at 375 degrees. Cream together until smooth

1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter

Beat in

3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla

Sift together

1 cup pastry flour or 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder

Add in small amounts, alternating with

3/8 cup milk

Fill the paper cups half full. Bake about 20 minutes.

I doubled the recipe and ended up with 32 cupcakes, just enough for my son's 5th grade class and a few left over for me the family. I frosted them with chocolate butter frosting (homemade, of course - if canned frosting looked like mine, Duncan Hines would go out of business). I'd give you that recipe, except I kind of cannibalized two separate recipes and to tell you the truth, I'm not exactly sure what I did. It may not be aesthetically pleasing, but it sure tastes good!