Baked by Beth: Snickers Cupcakes

Snickers Cupcakes- Heaven in a cupcake wrapper

These heavenly creations were made for a bake sale that is being held at the hospital I work for. The American Heart Association's Heart Walk is coming up soon, and several of the different departments at the hospital have formed teams and are raising funds before the walk. For some reason, my department (The Cardiopulmonary department) doesn't have a team...which is sad. Had I known sooner, I'd have volunteered to start one up. I was asked to bake for the bake sale that the Cardiovascular Intensive Care and Stepdown units are having for their team, as I work up in CVICU quite a bit. The nurses up there have seen my blog and some of my other goodies, and knew I'd love to make something for the occasion.

I saw a recipe on The Novice Chef Blog for 100 Grand Cupcakes, and they looked amazing. I wasn't able to get my hands on the mini 100 Grand bars for the first batch, so I went for Snickers. The thing that excited me most about the recipe was the Salted Caramel Buttercream, and that works well with either candy bar.

Snickers Cupcakes adapted from 100 Grand Cupcakes at The Novice Chef Blog
Makes 30 regular sized cupcakes

2 cups sugar

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

10 snack size Snickers bars, cut into thirds and frozen
3-4 snack size Snickers bars, chopped for topping

Preheat oven to 350°F and line muffin tins with cupcake wrappers.

Combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl and stir with wire whisk. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla and mix with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be very runny).

Fill muffin tins 2/3 full with batter. Place in oven for about 8 minutes, remove trays and insert 1 candy piece into each cupcake. Place trays back in the oven for approximately 16 minutes.

Recipe Adapted from: Hersheys

Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting
3 sticks unsalted butter; room temperature
3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 pounds confectioners’ sugar
1/2- 2/3 cup caramel topping depending on taste; plus more for drizzling
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream the butter in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer. Add the vanilla extract, salt and caramel syrup and combine well.

Add sugar in small batches, mixing well and scraping bowl after each addition. After all of the sugar has been added and mixed thoroughly, taste the frosting and add more caramel syrup if desired. For thicker frosting you can gradually add in a little more sugar.