Candy Bar Cupcakes

As if you couldn't tell from my blog posts, I have a sweet tooth.  I've been known to eat cookie dough until I'm sick.  I've been known to skip second helpings at dinner to make sure I can eat more dessert.  Last year at Thanksgiving, I ran five miles in a row for the first time ever motivated solely by the prospect of eating more pie.  You get the picture.  So when I tell you that these cupcakes are so sweet I could hardly eat them you should believe me.

I blame the icing.  Specifically, I blame the Snickers bars.  These were supposed to be chocolate cupcakes with a Milky Way center and Milky Way icing.  When looking into my leftover Halloween candy bag it appeared that I had a ton of Milky Ways (does anyone really choose to eat Milky Ways or do they just put them in the mixed back with the Snickers to get rid of them?)  It turns out you need two tons of Milky Ways so I subbed in some Snickers when I got to the icing.  It made a large difference.

The chocolate cake is definitely the best part of this cupcake.  If I hadn't ruined it with the icing I would have been much happier.  In fact, this recipe makes a ton of cake batter so I ended up with a bunch of plain ones that I gobbled up with whipped cream over the next few days while the iced cupcakes sat idle.

To make the cake all the dry ingredients get mixed together... cocoa powder, flour, sugar, soda, powder, salt... then go in the wet ingredients... eggs, buttermilk, warm water, oil and vanilla.  You end up with a batter that is really thin.  It freaked me out a little.

The trick to getting the candy centers in the cupcakes is to bake the batter for a few minutes and then put the mini candy bar in there.  That keeps it from sinking all the way to the bottom.  Pretty smart.

The icing comes together by melting the candy bars over the stove, then adding them to a whipped mixture of butter and marshmallow fluff and then adding some powdered sugar and milk. 

If I'd had enough Milky Ways I think the icing would have turned out really well.  Milky Ways are essentially chocolate covered marshmallow fluff so you probably end up with a tasty marshmallowey frosting.  Using Snickers which includes peanuts (which I don't think are the problem) and caramel (which I totally think is the problem) the icing got way too sticky and so sweet it felt like eating melted candy bars sprinkled with sugar... which is exactly what it is.

Both recipes are from Cookie & Cups.  I highly recommend the chocolate cupcake recipe.  If you're going to try the icing, skip the Snickers and stick with all Milky Ways. 

Enjoy!
Julie