I have no idea why I’m so tired right now, I got so much sleep over the weekend. But I am tired, so I’ll make this a glamour shot post. I made this batch this morning, but these were the cupcakes that disappeared from my husband’s birthday party because people loved them so much.

And yes, I’m typing up the recipe on Never Bashful With Butter as we speak.

Tomorrow starts a week of “alternative” baking, featuring vegan goodies gluten-free goodies and *Gasp* maybe even a little bit of baking with faux sugar for the diabetics out there. *smile*  More on that later.

ON WITH THE CUPCAKES!

Anyways.. here is the recipe for the cupcakes themselves-

I got it off the Hershey website. I’ll let you know though, I didn’t use hershey chocolate. hehehe..

2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.

while the cupcakes are in the oven, I made the caramel filling.

This is my own recipe, so feel free to use another one that I have posted, or one that you’re comfortable with. Just keep in mind you don’t want it to fully set up into chewy caramel, you want it to be sort of a creamy caramel, more pudding-y than set up or syrup.

You’ll need a medium saucepan and a heat proof spatula

1 Cup heavy cream
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla

In the pan you’ll place the butter, half of the cream and half of the sugar. bring mixture to a boil. When the mixture begins to thicken slightly, add the remaining sugar. bring to a full boil. when the mixture starts to thicken and turn a light brown colour, add the remaining cream and sugar.

turn temperature down to a few notches below medium. The mixture should remain boiling. stir constantly and do not allow the bottom to scorch. keep stirring and heating for about 10 minutes. when the mixture starts thickening up like pudding, remove from heat.

Let cool about 5 minutes (caramel will still be hot) or until the cupcakes are out of the oven.

Use a sharp knife to cut a cone out of the center of the cupcake. Remove the cone from the cupcake and cut the point off, leaving the top of the cupcake intact but allowing for a small amount of filling to be scooped into the cavity.

Scoop about a tablespoon of filling in, and a small amount of shaved chocolate ontop of that. replace the top of the cupcake and let cool completely before frosting with the chocolate icing of your choice.

I completely cheated on chocolate icing, because I cannot make chocolate icing without cream cheese, and since I didnt want to use cream cheese in the icing, I just couldnt do it.

I used store bought, and it worked just fine. (if you want to make your icing, there is a recipe for it on the link I supplied to the hershey’s website.)

So there you go. They really are pretty darn good. I’m looking forward to hearing how much my husband’s co-workers enjoyed them, because he’s taking all but two of them to work with him tomorrow.

-A.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 1st, 2008 at 12:54 am and is filed under April 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.