Rockstar Cupcakes - Leap Year Cupcakes 2012

I thought it would be neat to make a "Leap Year" cupcake - something over the top that I hadn't tried before.  I didn't want to put frogs on it though or anything else that signifies "leaping".  I just think something different should suffice :)  I had these really neat wrappers I made for them but my printer went on strike.  Phooey.

There are a few things about this cupcake I learned while making it that I probably won't be able to do again to them and a few things, like always, that I'd tweak.

Rockstars are a deep chocolate cake, filled with a marshmallow cream and topped with shortbread cookie crumbles, piped over that is a vanilla buttercream, sprinkled with gold and rainbow discos dust, crushed rock sugar and pop rocks.  This cupcake has a lot of texture.  If you don't like cupcakes with texture (crunch with the cake) then it's not for you!  But it was yummy!

I originally wanted a white chocolate ganache in the center but though, hey, I've done that before.  So marshmallow it was - since I don't get to use marshmallow cream that often and I really like it.

What I learned - pop rocks melt the longer they are exposed to the air.  I did not know this.  The one cupcake that I ate was just made and the pop rocks were the neatest thing!  You could feel them fizzling as you ate the cupcake!  This might be something where I have to supply the pop rocks in the packs and let people put them on themselves.

What I want to tweak - I wanted it to be a little more BLUE.  Closer to a neon like blue.  I also wanted to add edible blue disco dust but it was on back order.  Phooey.

Otherwise I like the way they look.  They're colorful :)

Recipe below!

Ingredients

1 box chocolate cake mix
1 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
3 eggs
4oz chocolate fudge pudding mix

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix all together.  Place in cupcake liners (makes 24)
Bake for 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Marshmallow Cream

1 cup marshmallow fluff
1 stick butter, room temp
1/2 cup sifted confectioner's sugar
1 tblspn cream

8 - 10 shortbread cookies, crumbled

Mix all together and set aside.

Cut a hole in the middle of each cupcake and fill with marshmallow cream.  Top with a few pieces of the crumbled shortbread.

Icing

3 sticks butter
3 cups sifted confectioner's sugar
1 tspn vanilla
blue food coloring

Mix all together.  Pipe over and around crumbled cookies.

Top cupcake with crushed rock candy, disco dust and pop rocks.  Serve immediately :)

Mint Choca Lotta Cupcakes

First off, no those are not grapes in the photo. They are mint maltballs from To The Moon Marketplace in Wilton Manors, FL. They are yum! They were also the inspiration for this cupcake! I hadn't done anything mint yet and I do like mint...especially with chocolate. And no, mint is not the same as peppermint...at least in my mind it isn't.

My sister wanted a new cupcake for her birthday so I set off to make these.

The Mint Choca Lotta (pronounced to the tune of Boom Chakka Lakka) is a chocolate cake with a mint maltball center, mint marshmallow buttercream and garnished with a Girl Scout Cookie Thin Mint.

As a friend of my sister's said

‎this beast is FANTASTIC! ♥ - Jenn MacDonald

They were really good!! Very rich!! The mint marshmallow buttercream was nice and light and not too minty.

I don't know how often I will be able to get ahold of the maltballs but I can replace the center with something minty chocolate for future needs!

What kinda cupcake would you like to see?

S'mores Cupcakes with Marshmallow Buttercreme

Photo by Diana Fye

I didn't expect these to be the big hit they were! I found lots of recipes for S'mores cupcakes but decided to try my own. As long as I had graham cracker, chocolate and marshmallow, I couldn't go wrong. The base of this cupcake is indeed crushed graham crackers. I tried the graham cracker in different ways (on top of the buttercreme, on top of the cake) but I loved this version better. The cake is of course chocolate. An option is to add a melted chocolate middle. I didn't do that on this batch but it would have worked just fine. The buttercreme is a true marshmallow buttercreme. I was worried it wouldn't come out right but I was oh so wrong. It came out perfect and had a wonderful marshmallow taste. Furthermore, it wasn't really sticky so I could pipe it. To decorate the buttercreme I tried a few things and decided that dusting it with graham cracker and sticking a piece of chocolate in the buttercreme was best. Another option is to actually toast the marshmallow buttercreme. Will have to try that next time. I know it works and I know it tastes amazing!