Fluffernutter Cupcakes |Cooking With Amanda

Heeeey… we've been down this road before: fluffernutter! Let's face it, there's a world of peanut butter dessert opportunity out there, and I'm determined to scour my brain and the internet for all of our options. I won't stop til I have single-handedly collected the world's largest repository of peanut butter recipes.

But even though there is much creative opportunity with peanut butter, it doesn't mean we won't end up repeating flavors here and there. Sure, there's a lot of original ways to use it (I did combine it with coconut, you'll recall, to make peanut butter coconut blondies), but there's only so many flavors that peanut butter goes with. Fortunately, it's quite a lot of them, but we may need to recycle. Hence why we now have Fluffernutter cupcakes, after also getting acquainted with Fluffernutter fudge, and Fluffernutter milkshakes.

Can you ever have too much fluffernutter in your life? NO. A resounding NO! Never.

These peanut butter cupcakes are my favorite because the peanut butter flavor is intense. The only way it ever should be – front and center. They remain moist and fluffy though. With all the peanut butter in there, you might worry that these would be dense and heavy, but they still retain a nice lightness.

And the marshmallow filling and frosting. I was so torn about whether to fill these with marshmallow and then top them with peanut butter buttercream, or to top them with marshmallow and fill them with nothing. You know what, there's a lot of peanut butter here already, so I went all out with the marshmallow and filled them AND topped them with homemade marshmallow frosting. It was a good decision. No regrets.

So much fluffy and sweet homemade marshmallow frosting…. which, by the way, that stuff is just plain fun to make. If you've never made it before, it's a little bit of a process, but it's fun and worthwhile. The resulting sweet cloud of marshmallow goodness is worth it. It's so light and airy.

The cupcakes are a cinch (I cheated because these start with a cake mix!), and the marshmallow frosting takes a small amount of cooking, but then you just let the mixer do all the work – beat the heck out of it for a few minutes. The frosting comes together pretty quickly and easily too, and then you are good-to-go assembling yourself some delicious Fluffernutter cupcakes!

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Fluffernutter Cupcakes Recipe

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Ingredients

For the Peanut Butter Cupcakes:

1 box yellow cake mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/4 cup canola oil
3 eggs
1 cup creamy peanut butter

For the Marshmallow Frosting:

4 large egg whites
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup peanut butter chips, melted, optional

Directions

To Make the Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a large mixing bowl, combine cake mix, water, oil, eggs, and peanut butter. Beat until well-blended.
Line two regular-sized muffin pans with paper liners.
Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.
Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until edges are golden brown and the tops of cupcakes spring back when pressed with a finger.
Cool in pans for about 10 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
Using a small spoon or knife, scoop a 1-inch ball out of the center of each cupcake. Discard the scooped cake balls, or repurpose (make cake balls!).

To Make the Frosting:

Combine egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar in a heat-proof bowl, ideally your mixing bowl.
Place over top of a large saucepan of simmering water, and whisk constantly for about 2 minutes, or until the sugar has dissolved and the egg whites are warm to the touch.
Immediately remove the bowl from heat, and place in your stand mixer. Start beating the egg white mixture slowly at first, but gradually increase speed to high.
Beat for 6-7 minutes, or until glossy and thick.
Add vanilla, and beat until combined.

To Assemble:

Pipe the frosting onto each cupcake, first filling the cavity of each, and then topping the rest of the cupcake.
Drizzle the cupcakes with the melted peanut butter chips. EAT!!