Cupcake a Week: Chocolate with Snickers

I hope everyone is off to a great start in 2010! Well as I promised in my Blog Resolutions the other day, I am going to start a new theme on my blog for the new year called "Cupcake a Week". My plan is to try and bake and decorate a wide variety of cupcake recipes this year and share a new idea with you each week. My inspiration for all the cupcakes I post, will be inspired by some of my favorite flavors and ingredients, recipes I haven't tried before but have always wanted too, seasonal or holiday themes, or events that are going on in my life. So get ready to go on a cupcake journey that will last for the next 52 weeks! I'm super excited to see how creative I can get with CUPCAKES! So let's not waste any more time...drum roll please....the first batch of cupcakes for the new year is.............CHOCOLATE with SNICKERS!



Snickers are one of my all time favorite candy bars! My husband had given me a bag of the Snickers Minis in my stocking so I figured why not try and incorporate them into a cupcake recipe. I made the chocolate cupcake batter first and then cut up the Snickers into little chunks and mixed them in the batter. When the cakes baked the Snickers melted, as you can see from the picture above...all of that ooey gooeyness peaking through.


So basically this cupcake is a triple does of chocolate...chocolate cake, chocolate in the Snickers...and you can't forget about adding some chocolate icing on top!



And then crumbling a few more Snickers bits on top of the icing. Simply delicious and a Snicker lovers dream! I only made 6 of these since we are just coming down off a sugar overload from my 24 days of Christmas baking and lets just say I'm trying to get all of those sweets out of my house still. So the last thing I needed was a full batch of 24 cupcakes lingering around for me to eat because I would have eaten every single one of them myself. However, now I am wishing that I would have made more than 6 because these didn't last too long! One of my husband's friends was over for dinner so I wanted to make him a dessert. So the three of us all ate one after dinner...leaving 3 cupcakes left. I sent one away with him when he left...leaving 2, so I'm thinking ok, I'll eat one and Randolph will eat one. However, that is not what happened at all. Randolph eats half of one right before bed...and then next thing I know he is back in the kitchen eating the other half along with the last remaining cupcake. And just like that the cupcakes were gone. Piggy Piggy!

Chocolate Snickers Cupcakes

This recipe makes 6 cupcakes. So just double the ingredients for a dozen.

Ingredients:

Cupcake:
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 cup sour cream

Chocolate Frosting:
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 - 2 cups powdered sugar
milk for consistency

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put 6 paper liners in cupcake pan.
• Put the butter, brown sugar, egg, flour, baking soda and cocoa in a large bowl and using a hand held electric mixer, beat together until smooth. Using a spoon, fold in the sour cream. Spoon the batter into the paper liners.
• Bake the cupcakes for 18 minutes.
• To make the frosting, melt the butter in a saucepan on low heat. Stir in vanilla, cocoa and powdered sugar. Add milk until you reach desired consistency.

HINT FOR NEXT WEEK'S CUPCAKE...let's just say I'm heading to Disney World tomorrow for the weekend to coach the Alabama Team in Training participants in the half and full marathons on Saturday & Sunday! Disney is a pretty magical place with lots of fun characters roaming around...I'm envisioning some pretty cute cupcakes for next week. Have a guess of what you think they could be, leave me a comment below and we shall see if you are right when I return from my trip!

ENJOY!