Snickers Cupcakes

I actually got a request for an order at my husband’s work after making these!  Since I don’t normally have 24 people to feed in house, a lot of my goodies go to my husband’s work.  🙂  Anywho, what I love about this recipe is the same thing about the Sausage Broccoli Bake.  You can change up the accessories and make something delicious to meet your tastes.  Instead of Snickers next time, I will probably use Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and throw a 1/3 cup of peanut butter (or more) into the frosting instead of caramel.

I’ve seen the base for the cake part all over the web, so you can use it with some chocolate chips in a 9×13 or bundt pan and just drizzle some icing and throw some candy on top!  The possibilities are endless.

Snickers Cupcakes yield 24

1 (18.25 ounce) package devil’s food cake mix
1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs; lightly beaten
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon of vanilla
24-30 frozen Snickers Miniatures (1 regular medium sized bag will work)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line 2 muffin pans with paper liners.
2. In large bowl, mix cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, oil, eggs, water and vanilla together.
3. Divide batter between the cupcakes.  Place a Snickers in each cupcake making sure to cover with batter!  If you don’t cover with batter, it makes a big dent in the middle.  I know from experience 🙂  But you can always cover the hole with frosting too 🙂  Frosting covers all our mistakes, right?
4.  Bake 18-20 minutes.  Cool cupcakes completely.

2 sticks unsalted butter; room temperature
1/2 cup shortening (or butter)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 pounds confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup caramel topping; plus more for drizzling (I would recommend Smucker’s brand, I just made these a third time and used Hershey’s brand and they were way too sweet and fake tasting in my opinion)
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. With electric mixer, cream butter and shortening.  Add vanilla, salt and caramel topping.
2. With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar in small increments making sure the powdered sugar has been integrated before adding the next installment.

Garnish with chopped Snickers bars and a drizzle of caramel of caramel syrup.  I found that chopping the Snickers bars while frozen made it easier.

(frosting adapted from mybakingaddiction.com; cake found at allrecipes.com)