Chocolate Dipped Candy Cupcakes

By Texaschef11

Ingredients

• Cupcakes:
• 1 box (18.25 oz) yellow cake mix
• 1 cup buttermilk
• vegetable oil called for on box
• 4 large eggs

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350 and line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

Put cake mix, buttermilk, oil and 4 eggs in a bowl and blend with an electric mixer on low speed, about 30 seconds. Increase mixer speed to high and beat for 2 minutes, scraping bowl as needed.


Fill paper liners 2/3 full with batter and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Remove cupcakes from pans and allow to cool on a wire rack.


Buttercream Frosting:
2 sticks of butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
3-4 tablespoons of milk
4 cups powdered sugar
About a cup or more creamy peanut butter
Corn syrup

Beat butter, milk and vanilla on low speed until well blended. Add powdered sugar and beat on medium for about 3 minutes. Add enough corn syrup to achieve desired consistency and beat about 2 minutes, adding more syrup as needed. Stir in peanut butter, adding at least a cup or more to taste. If frosting is too thick, beat in a bit more corn syrup.


Frost cupcakes or pipe frosting on with a large piping tip. Place cupcakes in the freezer, as the frosting needs to be cold in order for the chocolate shell to harden. Leave cupcakes in freezer for only about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare chocolate shell.


Chocolate Shell (adapted from Little Cakes from the Whimsical Bakehouse):
6 regular sized Hershey milk chocolate bars, broken into pieces
1 cup vegetable shortening


Combine chocolate and shortening in a glass bowl and microwave, stirring at 30 second intervals, until completely melted, about 2 minutes total. Whisk well to combine.


The chocolate mixture needs to be warm and your frosting needs to be cold in order for this to work properly. Take your cupcakes, two at a time, out of the freezer and dip upside down in the chocolate shell, making sure to only dip the frosting part. Allow the excess to drip off, the set cupcake down and sprinkle with desired topping. Set finished cupcakes in the refrigerator to finish setting up, and remove two more from freezer. Repeat process until all are finished. You may need to microwave your chocolate for a few seconds and give it a whisk every now and again.