Candy Bar Cupcakes

I decided to have some fun with my chocolate cupcakes today…a candy counter seems like fun if you ask me!  These were not special order cupcakes; I just wanted to play around with ingredients.  Tomorrow I’ll have to distribute them…looking suspiciously around for friends.

The Reese Cup Cupcake is filled with peanut butter fluff, a small ring of whipped chocolate ganache, a swirl of the peanut butter buttercream, and topped with a small Reese Cup.  Sounds like total yumminess if you ask me.

The Reese Cup Cupcake is on the left and the Snickers Cupcake is on the right.

The Snickers Cupcake has a filling of a small dollop of chocolate ganache, two whole peanuts, homemade caramel sauce (that broke – shucks!), a swirl of the chocolate and sprinkled with chopped peanuts.  This is a new cupcake for me and I hope the ratio/proportion is good.




The roasted peanuts are sitting on top of whipped chocolate ganache – waiting for the caramel.

You can see the caramel on the right and the chocolate frosting on the left…before the chopped peanut topping.

I love this mountain of vanilla buttercream on the chocolate cupcake!!  It’s covered in coconut and topped with a roasted almond.  …because, sometimes you feel like a nut.

A friend suggested the Peppermint Patty and as soon as I read that, I thought, “Of course!”  I love chocolate and mints, especially Junior Mints because it seems like I can eat more for less calories (I’m a product of ‘new math’).  The frosting is flavored with a bit of mint and topped with a peppermint patty – I like the smidge of green added for color.

The Three Musketeers Cupcake is a mash up of chocolate ganache, melted marshmallows, and a bit of vanilla buttercream.  I think it comes pretty close.  For the life of me I couldn’t figure how to top it, so I left it alone.

The fun is in the thinking about the cupcakes and what goes with what.  Figuring out the step-by-step decorating process is fun too.  I learn each time I tackle a big mixed project like this.

I’m especially grateful for my life partner who rolled up his sleeves and took the lead in cleaning up the resultant disaster.  He even commented, “That may have been in the top five of messes, Chef.”  I love it that he keeps it real.  And that he calls me Chef. 



I put these in the cake fridge for overnight after making a box for take-away.