My take on Goober

I got an idea last week that I just couldn't shake - Goober cupcakes. I grew up eating Goober and thought this cake would carry a bit of nostalgia for me and those of my generation. I wasn't exactly sure how the cake would play out so I tried a few different things before landing on the version that worked for me.

I've tried a peanut butter and jelly cupcake or two from cupcake bakeries that didn't really do it for me. For my version, I knew I wanted to start with a peanut butter cupcake recipe I got from Epicurious a while back (Note: if you ever make these, omit 1/4 cup of the flour). This makes a moist and kind of dense cake. Not everyone likes dense cakes. If you are more of a light and fluffy kinda person you'll want to find a different recipe. I also knew that I wanted to fill each cupcake with actual Goober.

I used a basic peanut butter frosting recipe, but may go with a cream cheese peanut butter frosting next time. I wanted it to be creamier than it turned out.

The experimentation started at the frosting of the cakes. I wasn't sure what I was looking for with the taste or the aesthetic. I started off trying to swirl the peanut butter frosting with plane ol' grape jelly. I also tried piping the peanut butter frosting and then drizzling the grape jelly over it. Both versions looked ugly, so I whipped up a grape jelly frosting of my own making. I would only recommend this frosting for a peanut butter and jelly flavored cupcake. I don't think it is so good on its own.

Grape Jelly Frosting:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup grape jelly
About 2 cups powdered sugar

The grape jelly frosting looked better on the cakes and tasted better with the flavors already present in the cake and filling too. It cut the peanut butter flavor which is overpowering without the grape jelly frosting. Even with the addition of this frosting the whole cupcake is still pretty "peanut buttery," but delicious. After trying a few different ways of putting both frostings on the cakes I settled on piping some of the grape jelly frosting on first and then topping with a piped layer of peanut butter frosting. The cakes looked beautiful - maybe a little too beautiful for Goober cupcakes. Although I didn't feel like the cakes had the look of a playful and nostalgic Goober cupcake, the flavor was there and the look was to my liking.

Needless to say, I went through a lot of piping bags this time around.