Saturday, June 5, 2010

Candy Bar Cupcakes

I think I’ve started a tradition, and I think it’s a good one. You see, every year my spinning instructor starts dropping hints about his birthday a couple of weeks before it arrives. Last year, I took the hints and decided to bring some cupcakes to class on his big day. Having cupcakes in the spinning room was so wrong, so antithetical, so naughty, and so great. One year later, I had to do it again, and this time, I looked to Demolition Desserts for a completely decadent cupcake. The candy bar cupcake is intended to taste like a Snickers bar. It’s a brown sugar cake with caramel filling, a rich chocolate and peanut butter frosting with roasted peanuts on top, and a sprinkling of sea salt. A woman at the front of the room, near the tray of cupcakes, said: I love smelling chocolate while on a spinning bike. It is very good motivation.

The cakes themselves are made with dark brown sugar and were tender and nicely flavored by themselves. As they baked and cooled, the caramel sauce was made from water, cream of tartar, sugar, and light corn syrup. After that mixture came up to temperature, butter and cream were added, and then it was simmered briefly. I chilled the caramel in the refrigerator before piping it into the cupcakes. The technique is a simple one. You push a one-quarter inch tip on a bag filled with the sauce into the top of a cupcake and squeeze in the caramel until the top of the cake just begins to rise a bit. A little caramel dribbles out on top, and that’s fine. The frosting was next, and that was made with milk chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, heavy cream, peanut butter, and buttercream frosting. I thought it was a little strange that one of the ingredients in the frosting was a half cup of buttercream frosting from another page in the book. Instead, this recipe could have just called for enough butter, confectioners’ sugar, milk, and vanilla to make up one half cup. At any rate, I mixed a little buttercream separately and added it to the chocolate peanut butter frosting, and the finished product was delicious. That was swirled onto the cupcakes and topped with roasted peanuts and sea salt.

These were definitely adequately decadent. Using a natural peanut butter with no added sugar, the bittersweet chocolate, and a touch of sea salt kept them from being too sweet. And, the chocolate, peanut, and caramel mix was reminiscent of a Snickers bar in the best way. Now, I just need to find a way to propel a tray of cupcakes in front of me when I’m out running.



31 comments:

  1. YUM! Adding these to the roundup on RestlessChipotle today!

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  2. That is a perfect combination, mmmmmhhh! I cannot resist such cupcakes!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  3. Lisa, you are such a sweet girl, I am sure your instructor very happy with such delicious cupcakes for his big day.

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  4. HOw wonderful. These cupcakes would suite me just fine :D
    Have a great weekend ahead daaaahling.
    *kisses* HH

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  5. Oh my gosh, those look delicious! Peanut butter + chocolate is really the best combination for sweets.

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  6. Holy CRAP!!!! I am drooling on my new laptop...not very becoming. Bookmarking this one for future use. Great post, Lisa!

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  7. These cupcakes look scrumptious! I would love to have a couple of them!

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  8. How much longer do you have to spin to work off one of those!?

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  9. I don't spin - but I would for one of these visions of loveliness! They look heavenly!

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  10. Lisa
    I don't think anyone would resist your cupcakes, spinning bike or not!

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  11. Amazing cupcakes! It would definitely make the final couple of miles in a long run much more pleasurable! :-)

    I am not too fond of spinning classes (I am a lousy biker), but for a cupcake like this, I would join your group!

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  12. Great idea - will race for cupcakes, especially one of these yummy cupcakes.

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  13. lovely creation! i declare, the possibilities for cupcake flavors is absolutely endless, and that's exciting. nice work, lisa!

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  14. Those look fabulous! Great pictures!

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  15. Mmm, I love anything Snickers related :) I would definitely take an extra spin class if it meant I could have a couple of these :)

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  16. I went past the photos quickly since I am seeing a trainer and have a goal next year to get to my weight of six years ago- the glimpse I got screamed some yummy candy bar goodness!

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  17. that's a happy tradition to continue. love the nutty toppings.

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  18. I personally believe there's something so entirely awesome about eating cupcakes at spin class. But that's the cupcake lover in me talking. I also really like watching the food network while I work out. :P

    These sound amazing! Snickers are one of my favorite candy bars.

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  19. That is so funny, Lisa! Taking those decadent cupcakes to spin class. *grin*

    They look wonderful! Isn't sea salt fabulous with chocolate?

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  20. I'm very lukewarm about cupcakes - kind of over them. But not something like this! Holy cow - take about decadent. Terrific exercise motivation!

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  21. They sound and look really delicious..!

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  22. Gorgeous looking cupcakes! Must be very delicious too! ;)

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  23. These look so amazing! I love the caamel inside and peanuts on the top.

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  24. oh, my!!! these look super tasty and decadent....roasted peanuts and sea salt...yum!!!

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  25. Demolition Desserts rocks, but you are right that is a bit unethical to have these bits of temptation that I am sure no one in their right mind could resist in the same room - wow!

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  26. Oh wow!This is so tempting!I love the sprinkle of sea salt on top :)

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  27. I am drooling!!! Don't you post recipes?

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  28. Avanika: Sorry, I don't re-print copyrighted recipes from books unless I have the publisher's permission.

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