One of my friends recently purchased his first home so a few of us decided to check it out after church on Sunday and then play some board games. Apples to Apples is a fav of ours! I asked my friend what his favorite cake is and of course he said snickers cheesecake. Well I knew right a way that cheesecake was out because the cupcakes would be in my car until we got to his house. I searched the world wide web and found a great recipe on the My Baking Addiction blog.

Surprisingly this is the second week of doctored cake mixes. I'm really coming around to this idea because you really cannot tell. This was my first time adding instant pudding to the mix. It was really gooey and a bit messy. Adding the frozen mini snickers was fun and for the most part it came out well. The recipe says it may make more than 24 cupcakes. With the extra batter I made a little cake in a ramekin. Apparently I should have made several extra cakes because some of the cupcakes came out with muffin tops. There was a hole where the cupcake fell in around the snickers on some of them. Nothing a little frosting couldn't fix though.

Instead of the frosting recipe that Jamie, My Baking Addiction author, used I decided to add caramel topping to the Wilton butter cream recipe. I'm not a fan of butter because it requires refrigeration and piping may be challenging. I ended up not piping these anyway due to time and wondering how the caramel would pipe. Also, I knew the cupcake was rich and did not want the frosting to be overwhelming.

The end result was a hit! I heard a lot of "these are good, thank you". You are welcome friends! And yes my small group will get to sample this recipe because the other dozen cupcakes and frosting are in the freezer.

Snickers Cupcakes

Makes 24-30 cupcakes
For the cake:
1 (18.25 ounce) package devil’s food cake mix
1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs; lightly beaten
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon of vanilla
24-30 frozen Snickers Miniatures
Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line (2) 12 cup muffin tins with paper liners.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs, vanilla and water.
4. Evenly divide the batter amongst the prepared pans. {I use a large cookie scoop from OXO to scoop my batter; it holds 3 tablespoons}.
5. Gently push a frozen Snickers Miniature bar into the center of the batter and smooth the surface making sure to cover the candy bar with batter.
6. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Cool cupcakes thoroughly on wire rack.
For the frosting:
2 sticks unsalted butter; room temperature
1/2 cup shortening
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 pounds confectioners’ sugar
1/3 cup caramel topping; plus more for drizzling
1/4 teaspoon salt
Method1. Cream the butter and shortening in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer. Add the vanilla extract, salt and caramel syrup and combine well.
2. Begin adding in the sugar and mixing thoroughly after each addition. After all of the sugar has been added and mixed thoroughly, give it a taste and decide if you want to add in more caramel syrup. For thicker frosting you can gradually add in a little more sugar.
Garnish with chopped Snickers bars and a drizzle of caramel of caramel syrup.
Notes:
Not a fan of Snickers? Sub in your favorite candy bar, just make sure you freeze them first.
Not a fan of vegetable shortening? No worries, simply sub in butter for the shortening.