Golf Cupcakes

Every year at the lake we live on, there is a golf tournament.  My sister, Alyssa, wanted to make cupcakes to commemorate the event, so I decided to try my hand at being sous chef, and help her out.  We made a simple chocolate cupcake (and cheated a little) and used canned frosting.  However, we were more excited about the look.  We rolled half the cupcake in crushed graham crackers to signify  "sand traps," we rolled the other half in green sanding sugar, cut some straws and used cut pieces of paper for the flags, and used big white pearl sprinkles for golf balls.

They look like "Holes-in-One" to me!

Everyone loved them!  Well, except my Dad, the avid golfer he is, informed Alyssa and I that

having a sand trap that close to the hole wouldn't happen and therefore they weren't accurate.  We told him we weren't going for accurate, we were going for cute!  

Golf Cupcakes 

Clearly we succeeded. 

Spaghetti Cupcakes

Have you ever cooked a big Italian meal and decided you needed a dessert to go with it, but couldn't decide what to cook?  Well, here's the perfect solution, spaghetti cupcakes!  Okay, they're not real spaghetti, but they sure do look like a big platter of spaghetti and meatballs! (Plus, they're really easy!)
First, make your favorite white or yellow cupcakes and your favorite vanilla frosting.  (We actually were going to use boxed for both, but didn't have any, so we made both from scratch!)
After the cupcakes are cool, the fun part comes!  Arrange 11 of them on a platter.  Frost a thin layer of frosting on each cupcake before putting the spaghetti on.  Put your frosting into a piping bag, or if you're like me and don't have a piping bag, cut the corner of a baggie and use that, just make sure your frosting is thick enough to withstand the piping process.  Also, make sure to make the "spaghetti" isn't perfect, just like real spaghetti would be.  After you put down the layer of spaghetti, roll the Ferrero Rocher candies in some of your favorite red jelly for the "sauce."  We used strawberry, but you could use raspberry if that's what you have on hand.  After that, put one candy on each cupcake as the "meatballs" and leave a couple of extras on the plate, as if they rolled off.  Sprinkle with some shredded coconut for the "parmesan." Now you're ready to enjoy!

I should also note that I was the sous chef for this recipe, as my sister did most of the actual cooking :)

Ingredients for Toppings:
Frosting*
*If frosting is too runny, add more powdered sugar
12 Ferrero Rocher Candies
Strawberry or Raspberry Jelly, enough to cover the candy
Shredded Coconut, just a couple pinches

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