Twix Cupcakes

Today my sister and I made a joint effort to make Twix cupcakes.  My sister, Alyssa, is much better at baking than I am, so I decided to consult her on this post.  First, we whipped up the batter; we cheated a little bit and used box chocolate cake mix, but we made the frosting so it's okay.

First cupcake going in!

 Then we baked the cupcakes; they turned out super moist!

So many cupcakes!

While we were baking the cupcakes, we made the frosting, salted caramel!  It turned out really yummy, but next time I would add a little bit more caramel and a dash more salt.  It ended up tasting like a very good, slightly salty, slightly caramely buttercream.
The cupcake recipe also called for a chocolate ganache, so we figured we might as well make that too!  After we frosted the cupcakes, we started by spooning the ganache on top of the cupcakes, but it was kind  of going everywhere.  Alyssa suggested we dip the cupcakes into the ganache as they do on all the baking shows, and that worked perfectly!  After the ganache, we topped each cupcake with a mini Twix bar.  Yum!

Twix Cupcakes

Twix Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 box chocolate cake mix, or your favorite chocolate cake recipe
24 fun size Twix bars, unwrapped
Salted Caramel Frosting
2 sticks room-temperature salted butter
5 cups powdered sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
3-5 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup caramel syrup topping
Chocolate Ganache
9 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp. light corn syrup

Preparation:
Ganache
In a small pan, heat one cup cream over medium heat until it reaches a simmer.
Remove from heat and add semi-sweet chocolate and corn syrup.
Whisk until smooth.
Refrigerate for 30-60 minutes, or until it is completely cooled.
Cupcakes
Prepare according to directions on the box.
Frosting
Beat butter on medium speed until it is fluffy.
Beat in powdered sugar, salt, 3 Tbsp. heavy cream, and caramel syrup.  If frosting is too thick, add more whipping cream.

Once cupcakes are cool, top with caramel frosting.
Dip each cupcake into bowl of chocolate ganache.
Place one Twix bar on top of ganache.
Enjoy!


Recipe adapted from Mini Baker