Witch Hat Cupcakes (re-run)

Here's another repeat post, these cupcakes are so cute and not hard to make at all - and look how cute these witch's hats are! Originally posted 10/15:

Happy Halloween! For my last post this month I decided to make witch hat cupcakes for my niece's soccer game today - probably not the most practical treat at a soccer game but they are so cute I'm doing it anyway :) Girls are going to love them!

I just made regular white cupcakes from a mix and frosted with white store bought vanilla frosting (left over from Halloween gingerbread houses) whipped with some cocoa to make it light brown and fluffy. My sister heard a tip somewhere that if you whip the store bought frosting with a mixer it gets light and fluffier and it worked! Giving the non-baking sister credit for that baking tip of the day ;).

For the witch hats: melt black candy melts in the microwave according to directions on the bag (I added a little bit of shortening to it to make it a little runnier, maybe a tablespoon), then using a pastry brush I brushed small sugar cones with the melted candy and set them on a parchment lined baking sheet to dry - it doesn't take long to set up.

 For the brim I cut small (about 1 1/4")  holes in patterned cupcake liners and slid them over the top of the cones. Set on top of frosted cupcakes at a slight angle so you can see some of the frosting underneath.

This idea came from Country Living Magazine , click here for the article. 

Rolo Cupcakes

My niece Mickey requested cupcakes for her graduation party and sent me what seemed like hundreds of Pinterest ideas for what she would like. I decided to make 2 different flavors -'Rolo' which is a dark chocolate cake with caramel, and 'cookie dough' yellow cake with a ball of cookie dough in the batter ... she was thrilled.

The Rolo cupcakes are filled with homemade caramel, when I first looked at the recipe I was thinking that sounded like a lot of work and I wasn't crazy about that haha, but it was very easy to do and I'm going to be using this caramel recipe for lots of different things in addition to the cupcake filling. Don't let that part scare you off of making these! I followed the recipe exactly even though while I was waiting for the sugar to melt in a dry pan I was second guessing the instructions for sure! You put granulated sugar in a pan over medium heat and stir, and wait, and stir, and wait - it took quite a while before it started to melt and then it got weirdly chunky before it did indeed finally melt. Don't let it cook too long or the sugar will burn.

this is what the sugar did before melting completely. 

I'll admit I cheated on the cake part of the recipe; I planned to make the cake from scratch as instructed but then saw that I had a devils food cake mix in the cupboard and decided to use that as a short cut. I did add a big scoop of sour cream and a handful of mini chocolate chips to the batter to jazz it up a little.

After the cupcakes are baked and cool, scoop out some of the top (I cut a circle with a sharp knife and then scooped it out with a small spoon saving the cake I removed) and fill with a little less than a tablespoon of cooled caramel sauce, replace the piece of cake you removed, then frost with chocolate buttercream and drizzle with a little more caramel. Top with an unwrapped Rolo.

These turned out super good, the only negative I heard was that they are almost too moist - I think the caramel soaks into the cake quite a bit so it gives it a very moist texture, you almost want to eat them with a fork. But really, if the only downside is chocolate cake that is too moist (instead of dry!) then I'm good with that.