Snicker's Cupcakes

I had this past Sunday off from work and was in the mood to bake.  I seized this rare opportunity to tackle a recipe that looked like it would take several hours of my time.  I have been reading Annie Eat's blog quite a bit lately and I have been wanting to tackle some of her scrumptious looking recipes.  An aside from baking altogether, just saying the word scrumptious reminds me of the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  I watched the movie over and over again when I was a kid.  There is a song in the movie where Dick Van Dyke sings about the female lead being "Truly Scrumptious".  Truly Scrumptious Video  Anyone remember this scene?  :)  The thought of the movie brings back good memories and I hope these Snicker Cupcakes from Annie Eat's blog are a scrumptious as my memories of the movie are.  Maybe they will be "Truly Scrumptious"...who knows...

Recipe from Annie Eat's

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

½ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder

½ cup hot water

2 cups all-purpose flour

¾ tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp. baking powder

¾ tsp. coarse salt

16 tbsp. unsalted butter

1½ cups sugar

2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk

1¾ tsp. vanilla extract

2/3 cup sour cream, at room temperature

For the caramel sauce:

8 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 cup sugar

1 cup heavy cream

¼ tsp. vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

For the filling:

24 fun-size Snickers bars, chopped

For the frosting:

16 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 lb. confectioners' sugar

1½ tsp. vanilla extract

1/3 cup caramel sauce

Pinch of coarse salt

2 tbsp. heavy cream

For garnish:

8 fun-size Snickers bars, chopped

Directions:

For cupcakes:

1. To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line standard cupcake pans with paper liners.  In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder and hot water until smooth.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

2.  In a medium saucepan, combine the butter and the sugar over medium heat.  Heat, stirring occasionally to combine, until the butter is melted.  Remove the mixture from the heat and transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.  Beat on medium-low speed, 4-5 minutes, until the mixture is cooled.  Mix in the eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed and beating well after each addition.  Mix in the vanilla and then the cocoa mixture and beat until incorporated.  With the mixer on low speed add in the dry ingredients in two batches, alternating with the sour cream, beating just until combined.

3.  Divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners, filling them about ¾ of the way full.  Bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, rotating the pans halfway through baking.  Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For caramel sauce

 4. To make the caramel sauce, melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat.  Add the sugar and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar begins to foam a bit.  It will look and smell like it's on the verge of burning.  Remove from the heat and add the heavy cream.  Stir until the sauce is smooth (you may need to return it to the heat to smooth it out), then mix in the vanilla and salt.  Let cool.  (This can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.)

5. To fill the cupcakes, cut a cone out of the center of each cupcake with a paring knife.  To make the filling, combine the chopped Snickers bars in a bowl with 1/3-½ cup of the caramel sauce, and mix to coat.  Drop a spoonful of the filling mixture into each cupcake.  See picture below...

  Filling in the center of the cupcakes (above)

For the Frosting

6. To make the frosting, add the butter to the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed 1 minute until smooth.  Blend in the confectioners' sugar until smooth, 1-2 minutes.  Mix in the vanilla, caramel sauce and salt until incorporated.  (Note: the caramel sauce should be just warm enough that it is workable, but not warm enough to melt the butter in the frosting.)  Add the heavy cream and whip on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.  

7. Transfer the frosting to a pastry bag fitted with a decorative tip.  Drizzle the frosted cupcakes with additional caramel sauce and garnish with chopped Snickers bars.

Learning topic: The learning topic for this recipe is Snickers.  I know you always wanted to learn some fast facts about the awesome candy.   Facts include:
1) The global sales of Snickers reaches about $2 billion per year (Wikipedia)
2) Introduced in 1930 by the Mars corporation.  It's name was derived from one of the Mars' family favorite horses
3) 1 snickers bar equals 271 Calories which is about equivalent to a Subway Veggie sub
4) Each bar contains about 16 peanuts (Mars website)

Rating the dessert: Cupcakes have become such a trendy dessert here in Houston recently.  Everyone is always talking about the newest cupcake shop around.  I haven't been overly impressed with most of the cupcake shops that I have visited here in town thus far.  My main complaint about many of the cupcake places is there cupcakes are #1 too dry and #2 overpriced.  I am fully convinced that with some practice that I fully capable of making superior cupcakes to these cupcake shops.  So here I am with these Snicker cupcakes... my biggest complaint with these cupcakes is that they are too dry.  Okay cupcake shops...it may not be as easy as it looks!  I give these Snicker cupcakes 3.5 out of 5 stars.  The chocolate cupcake itself is too dry and isn't gooey and chocolatey enough for me.  So honestly, I think you can do better than this base cupcake.  In addition, the snickers are hard to keep inside the cupcake itself.  As you bite into the cupcake, the snicker bar tries to stay separate from the cupcake itself.  My favorite part of this recipe is the icing.  It is simply delicious.  I loved the taste of the icing...sweet but not to sweet.  The icing is going on my list of icings to make again.  The last component of the recipe to discuss is the caramel sauce.  My sauce did not come out to be as thick as I would have liked it to be.  Any ideas why?  My theory is that I didn't leave the mixture on the stove long enough and then I should have pour the milk into the hot solution slowly.  My caramel had chunks at the bottom initially that I stirred out.  Anyways, until next time...happy baking!