Fluffer nutter cupcakes, or feeding peanut butter to the French

This is a special dedication to the wonderful E, one of the best people you could ever hope to meet, who I was lucky enough to go to college with.  E has become not only one of my favorite experts on sociology (I would turn to her over Bordieu any day) but also one of the best chefs I know, as evidenced by the lovely Foodaphilia.  (This is a side note, but it's funny- our senior year we lived across the hall from each other (I know, in the dorms!) and since people called me G and her E, and there was a window in between our rooms, we seriously considered putting a F on the window.  End side note) 

Anyways,  she went to Philly to get a doctorate in Sociology, I went to Eugene and then came here, and long story short we haven't seen each other or cooked together AGES. Really, oodles and oodles of time.  Mega oodles.  So we've talked about, but never gotten around to finishing, a "thing" where we cook the same thing, but in our separate places of residence on opposite sides of the ocean (far far away).  A little while ago, though, E told me that I should make her famous fluffer-nutter cake, yes, based on that sandwich, and then give it to French people and see what happened.  I took this as a DARE. 

This presented several challenges which I will now list-

I've never eaten a fluffer-nutter sandwich

I don't own a cake pan (here)

Access to marshmallow fluff and peanut butter is rather slim and expensive

I might kill some French people in the process from sugar overdoses

Ok, though, I had to at least try. It was a dare! So I decided to make cupcakes instead, to try and limit the sugar and make up for the lack of cake pan. Then I had to assemble the ingredients. Did you know that this fakey American store in Lyon sells marshmallow fluff but that it is over FOUR EUROS for a jar? I knocked that one off the list. I was left with this... 

I made a basic yellow cupcake and E's peanut butter frosting (cutting down on the sugar a little), but was then left with the problem of what to do with the marshmallows.  I wanted them to be a surprise, so on top was out.  Making sandwiches seemed like a one-way trip to a mess.  So I finally decided to cut a hole in the cupcakes, then stuff marshmallow in, stuff the top back on, and try to cover it up with frosting.

I had a lot of cupcakes left over (I wasn't going to make a zillion of these cupcakes, just in case), so I jammed them. I mean I basically did the same thing as with the marshmallows, but with raspberry jam, some with a rose water glaze. Then I served them to a friend's family. They seemed happy. Also, that's my law final under the cupcakes. 10 points if you can answer a question!

I luckily had a captive audience to try these cupcakes- my coworkers.  I expected revolt, but it actually went ok.  Jérôme ate 3. But it was sugar-overload, and some people wouldn't touch them because of the peanut butter. I ate one, and enjoyed it, but then felt like I might get a cavity.  But it could also be the ingredients, since I find marshmallows less sweet in the states.

This is the original recipe from E.    

I can't wait to cook with E for real, but until then maybe she'd like to tackle pig's feet?