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Saturday, August 25, 2012

Snickers Cupcakes

Difficulty level: easy
time consuming: eh, kinda.

I made these Snickers cupcakes as a Bid 'n' Buy item for my church festival.  I was really excited when they sold for more than the estimated value.  Did you know that "gourmet" cupcakes sell for around $3 a cupcake?!? Crazy, right!

These cupcakes are a chocolate cake, filled with milk chocolate mousse, topped with chocolate buttercream and chopped up Snickers candies.  They are deeeee-licious.  Although this isn't my favorite chocolate cake recipe, it does produce a nice, light, moist cake.  But in the future I'll probably stick to the Bakerella one I love.

 Recipe: Snickers Cupcakes
yields 24 cupcakes or so

Ingredients:

Cake
1 box Devils Food Cake Mix
1 small box Jello Chocolate Fudge instant pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

Chocolate Mousse Filling
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 cups milk chocolate chips

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
4-6 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
3-5 tablespoons milk
2 bags mini Snickers

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 cupcake tins with liners.

2.  Make the cupcakes:  In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, oil, milk, sour cream, and vanilla.  Beat, starting out slow until all the ingredients look "wet," then increase speed until well combined.

3.  Place batter into cupcake tin about half to 2/3 full.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating your pans if your oven heats unevenly halfway through baking.  A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.  Remove from tin and let cool. (**Note: if you decide to bake mini cupcakes, bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes)

4.  While the cupcakes are cooling, prepare the mousse filling.  Melt chocolate chips in the microwave in a microwave safe bowl (30 seconds at 50% power, stir, repeat until smooth).  Set aside to cool (but not re-harden).

5.  Place whipping cream in the (cleaned) bowl of your stand mixer with the whisk attached, and  whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks for and it looks like whipped cream.  Don't overwhip at this point, or else you will start on the path of making homemade butter.

6.  Spoon the cooled, melted chocolate over the whipped cream and fold to combine.  Place mixture into a piping bag.

7.  Once the cupcakes have cooled, fill the cupcakes.  Using a paring knife, apple corer, or cupcake plunger, remove the middles of your cupcakes.  Fill the cupcakes with mousse.  (Or be like the original recipe and just shove your piping bag tip into the cupcake and squeeze!)

8.  Set filled cupcakes aside and prepare the frosting.  In the bowl of the stand mixer with the whisk attachment, cream butter until it's smooth, about 5 minutes on speed 6.

9.  While that's going, sift the powdered sugar and cocoa powder into a separate bowl.  Slowly add this to the creamed butter.  Increase speed to high (speed 8) and continue to whip until it has increased in volume and is nice and light.  Add vanilla, and beat for another minute.

10.  At this time, check out the consistency of the frosting.  If you like it, pipe it on your cupcakes.  If it's too thick, add some milk, a tablespoon or two at a time, continue to whip, and add more until you reach the consistency you like.

10.  Place icing into a piping bag and top the cupcakes!  Chop up the snickers into small, bite sized pieces and top the cupcakes with the candy.  Enjoy!


Recipe slightly adapted from Kevin & Amanda.

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