Candy Bar Cupcakes

My first recipe blog! Woo hoo! A milestone I'm sure ;)

Candy Bar Cupcakes 

These egg-free cupcakes turned out pretty tasty. Overall I would give the recipe a 3.5/5

Why? Well…I was pretty much not impressed with the "filling". The filling does contain and egg, and it really just turned out to be a pretty flavorless layer in the cupcake even though it had candy bar in it. Not that impressive. What I did like about them was the chocolate cupcake recipe itself is pretty tasty and doesn’t have any eggs in it which really helps with the calories. Pair the cupcake base with a creamy raspberry or orange cream filling…oh yea!

So we’ll see what I come up with later in life on how to perfect this, but for now I’ll share this version with you. 

I’ll post the whole recipe and directions first so you can copy and paste if you want, then give you pictures and steps after that. 

From “Healthy Cooking” magazine

CUPCAKES

1 cup sugar

1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk on hand to 1 tbs of lemon juice)

¼ cup canola oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup baking cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp. salt

FILLING

6 oz fat-free cream cheese

2 Tbsp confectioners sugar

1 egg

2 snickers candy bars finely chopped

FROSTING

1/3 cup butter, cubed

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

3 Tbsp fat-free milk

1-1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

1. In a large bowl, beat the sugar, buttermilk, oil and vanilla until well blended. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into sugar mixture until blended.

2. In a small bowl, beat cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg; mix well. Stir in candy bars.

3. Fill paper-lined muffin cups one-third full with batter. Drop filling by tablespoonfuls into the center of each cupcake and add another layer of batter.

            *note, the instructions say the cups should be about half full. Mine were ALL the way to the top before I new what was going on! The batter is thick and making room for the filling is not an easy task. Mine were full and turned out with big tops but they were still tasty. So careful if you’re looking to make small cupcakes, use small spoonfuls!

           Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cook completely.

4. In saucepan, melt the butter. Stir in brown sugar. Bring to a boil; cook for 2 minutes stirring occasionally.

         

           *note, 2 minutes was NOT enough time for my boil. The icing turned out tasty but it did not hold its form like the picture in the magazine showed. I would boil for more like 3-4 minutes if I tried this again to help it set stiffer.

           

            Remove from heat; stir in the milk, then confectioners’ sugar. Cool until frosting reaches spreading consistency. Frost cupcakes. 

If you don't have buttermilk, (who does?) and don't wanna buy it specifically for this, I suggest using 1 cup of milk to 1 tbs of lemon juice. Mix together and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Gather the ingredients!

Get out your fabulous-o mixing bowls! (or whatever you have in your kitchen. Though I suggest colors because they make mixing that much more fun ;)

 1st mixing step- sugar, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla 

2nd mixing step- flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt, beat into 1st mixure

 

Crush up your candy bars! (I used a butterfinger instead of two snickers)

If your cream cheese is straight from the fridge (like mine was) put in the microwave for a few seconds until it's softened enough to beat it.

 

My amazing-ly HUGE amish eggs from a local grocer. Got the 12 box for only a buck! woo hoo

Pretty liners can really help a so-so looking cupcake ;)

1st step in filling the tins

(oh yea, the recipe calls for "muffin tin" I obviously used regular cupcake because that's what I have. Is there a difference? I don't know. But that could attribute to them being such big cupcakes!?)

2nd layer- filling

3rd layer- what you don't see is that I used so much batter that I didn't have enough to cover two of the cupcakes! haha. part of being in the kitchen is making mistakes!

The butter and brown sugar boiling (my suggestion is more than 2 minutes!)

The cupcakes, and the two misfits :)

The frosting. I even used a frosting bag and tip for these! As soon as the icing was from the fridge (I placed it there to hurry on the "setting") it became soft and runny. So I really should have just iced them with a knife and saved the effort but oh well! Live and learn.

And to finish it off, Macey with her favorite toy. Adding that shoe string to the froggie was the best thing to her since peanut butter stuffed in her kong toys! She drags it around the room constantly. This is her quite konked out after running while mommy was making cupcakes in the kitchen :)

Love,

LT