It’d be nice if I could come up with a shorter name for these guys…but I thought I’d go the more descriptive route.

These cupcakes were for a special crowd that I was hoping to impress, and I thought that this was the perfect flavor combination to please any palate.

I was SUPER DUPER PUMPED to make these (picture me doing a cheerleading dance). It has been so, so, so long since I got to make a cupcake. I mean like pretty much a whole month! Lent has been driving me a little wack-o and I thought I was just about to jump out of my skin when I was making these babies.

I have never been so thankful to whip cream. Or to mix a cupcake batter. I know, I’m weird. But you secretly love it…!

One little note about this recipe that I would like to mention is that I used my Gram’s go-to chocolate cake recipe. That lady sure could bake one heck of a cake. My mom adores her red devil chocolate cake recipe and I know she hold this recipe quite close to her heart, but I’m happy to share this with the rest of you all so everybody can enjoy some of Gram’s love. If you’d like to learn more about Gram, I wrote a pretty big post about her here.

Gram’s Red Devil Chocolate Cake

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

2 cups sifted flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 cup cocoa powder (I used Dark cocoa powder)

1/2 cup milk (I used skim)

1 cup boiling water (I just microwaved mine for about 75 seconds)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line 24 cupcake tins with liners.
2. Cream together butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add salt and eggs. Mix in sifted flour, baking soda, and cocoa powder. Stir in milk. GRADUALLY stir in hot water by HAND! (well, with a spoon or spatula, but a mixer might make a mess)
3. Fill lined cupcake tins about half-way and bake in preheated oven 15-18 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Whipped Cream

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

4 teaspoons powdered sugar

1. Whip cream and powdered sugar with mixer, using whisk attachment, on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form and mixture looks just like whipped cream. Place whipped cream  into a pastry bag fitted with a piping tip to fill cupcakes. Stick pastry bag into cupcake and squeeze whipped cream into cooled cupcake. Repeat for all cupcakes.

Caramel Buttercream

1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons white sugar

5 Tablespoons water

pinch of salt

5 Tablespoons heavy cream

2 sticks butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups powdered sugar

1. Combine white sugar and water in small or medium heavy-bottom saucepan. On medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil and stir in salt. Stop stirring and let the mixture cook, gently stirring every so often, until it is a deep amber color. Remove from heat and slowly stir in cream, a couple tablespoons at a tim. Watch out because the cream will cause the caramel to get a little crazy and fizz up a bit! Set aside and let cool.
2. Cream butter until smooth. Mix in vanilla extract. Add cooled caramel mixture to creamed butter. Mix in powdered sugar and add milk as needed until you achieve your desired consistency of frosting and piping.
3. Pipe or frost cupcakes as desired.

Random Fact of the Day: Your body uses 200 muscles to take a single step.

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