They're Called FlufferNutters

Growing up, I was an Adam's Peanut Butter sort of girl. That all-natural, no sugar added, no trans-fat, oil resting on the top, waiting to be mixed in, was the only sort of peanut butter I was allowed. But when you are a kid, you get to go over to your friend's house, and you learn the "finer" points of culinary life. You are shown how to make FlufferNutter sandwiches. For those of you who don't know, a FlufferNutter is a sandwich slathered in smooth Skippy or Jif peanut butter, and doused with an unhealthy dollop of Marshmallow Fluff. They're very full of preservatives, very fake, but unduly delicious to the tastebuds of a 10 year old, reared on that all-natural junk.

Over the weekend, I began thinking of those Saturday afternoons at my best friend's house, scraping clean the jar of peanut butter. I still love peanut butter; warm peanut butter toast; the occasional PB & J sandwich, with the ratio of peanut butter to jelly exactly correct; and peanut butter cookies, crisp yet chewy. So why not peanut butter cake? And aren't cupcakes so much cuter, just a bite of scrumptious sweetness? And if I'm making peanut butter cake, why not recreate that sandwich from my youth-- the FlufferNutter.

A quick internet search led me to this Peanut Butter Cake recipe. Minorly tweaked by adding 1/2 cup instead of just 1/3 cup peanut butter, this cake had a dense, muffin-like texture, and was not overly sweet. The shock of white frosting adorning this cake was that old stand-by 7 Minute Frosting, a frosting that seems to have fallen out of favor by today's standard. It is light, fluffy, and super-sweet, just like the contents of those jars of Marshmallow Fluff.

These cupcakes were especially nice, baked in bite-sized portion cups, an idea I got from Cupcake Bakeshop, a true artist of cupcakery. Topped with a lightly salted, dry-roasted peanut, so snackers knew what they were about to bite into, these diminutive cakes were a pleasant twist on the standard cup cake, and a lovely reminiscence of a childhood snack.