Cake #21 Chocolate Buttermilk Candy Filled Cupcakes - By Brayden

My son Brayden is helping with today's post. You see, something went very, very wrong in my back and I've been stuck, lying flat since Monday morning. The doctors have me on a handful of things, including Prednisone, in hopes of driving off the rampaging barbarian hordes that are ransacking my spinal column.

So far not so good.

Knowing I've been working hard to keep up with the 52 Cakes Project, my youngest whipped up a recipe and tutorial for everyone. He's a really neat person and to him I offer my most sincere thanks. So without further preamble - here's Brayden.

Chocolate Buttermilk Candy-Filled Cupcakes

Recipe:

1 box Devils Food or Chocolate Cake Mix

1 cup buttermilk (to replace the water on the box)

Vegetable Oil (the amount on the box. We use 1/2 oil, 1/2 applesauce. Mom buys the individual serving size ones just for baking)

4 eggs (in place of the number on the box)

Mix together well.

Spoon half the batter into a large ziploc bag, snip off end and fill cupcake pans.

Fill 1/2 of the pans 2/3 of the way full and half 1/3 way through. For the 1/3 full ones, drop in a mini candy bar (Milky Way, Snickers etc) and then cover with batter.

Tip: Not everyone likes candy in their cupcake or the added calories so color code your cupcake liners so people know what they're getting. Like this:

Red are filled, green are plain.

Bake as directed. The buttermilk makes the cupcakes really moist and delicious.

Simple Frosting:

2 sticks of butter
4 cups icing sugar
Fat-free half 'n' half, cream, milk, coffee creamer, coffee - something wet as needed.
extracts: vanilla, butter extract, mint, almond etc.

Put butter in the mixer and beat until fluffy

Add icing sugar a little at a time until all combined

Beat until really, really light and fluffy

It'll be delicious but really stiff. So you need to add a little liquid until the consistency is spreadable. Add your extracts. I used vanilla and butter extract.

Spread on your cupcake

(It's hard to spread and take pictures. You should see all the icing on the camera!)

Top with chopped candy bars.

Mom and my brothers said some of my ideas look like they'd been handled too much - like this one, where I decorated with the chocolate off of chocolate bars. 

And you're done, so get someone to take pictures of you and your dessert. Avery and Trenton took these:

Thanks, Brayden. You're a great kid and your cupcakes were delicious.