Worms in Dirt Cupcakes (2 versions)

Tomorrow is my nephew's graduation from pre-school to kindergarten.  We're having a little party for him tomorrow so I thought I would make some cupcakes for the boy!

I made Worms in Dirt.  Of course 1 kind wouldn't be enough for a crazy four year old, so I made two!

Worms in Dirt (1.0)

Cupcakes
2/3 cup sugar
3 large eggs
¼ cup muddy cocoa
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
¼ cup milk
8-10 Gummy Worms (you're call on this one, as they will melt when you cook)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and lightly butter or line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, cocoa, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.  After you have broken up the worms, you can add them to the mix by folding them into the batter.  FYI: they will melt when you make them so there really is no point to this, other than the taste of the gummy worms being in the cupcakes.  Personally, I don't like the taste, but all the kids do.

Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost.

Chocolate Frosting w/Oreo Bits

1 Cup Butter (room temperature)

1/3 Cup Cocoa

3 Cups Confectioner's Sugar

1/3 Cup Milk

1/2 Cup crushed Oreo's

12 Gummy Worms

Beat butter on medium speed until creamy.  Add in remaining ingredients except for Oreo's.

Once cupcakes are cooled, spread the frosting on them, and then roll the tops of them in the crusher Oreos (I put the Oreos on a piece of wax paper).  Garnish with remaining worms.

Version  2.0

Cupcakes

2/3 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

¼ cup milk

3 Drops Green Food Dye (neon)

1 Drop Blue Food Dye (neon)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and lightly butter or line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

3 Cups Confections Sugar

1 Cup Butter (1 cup=1 stick)

1/4 Cup Milk

2-3 Dashes of Vanilla

3/4 Cup Crushed Oreos

12 Gummy Worms

Beat butter until creamy.  Add sugar and beat together until combined.  Add milk & vanilla and beat until combined.  Fold in Oreos.  Once cupcakes have cooled completely, ice them (I didn`t have any Wilton bags so I used a Freezer bag and cut a small hole in the tip).  Once iced, add a few pieces of the Gummy Worms

Blueberry Cupcakes with Maple Butter Frosting

Here are some of my pictures from tonight!

I used about 3/4 of a pint of blue berries in the cupcakes!

After it's beaten, gently fold in your blueberries (roll them in flour beforehand and they won't bleed or break as easily).

They made 12 small cupcakes.  If you want bigger ones, I'd suggest only making six.

When you make the frosting, make sure you wait until the cupcakes are cooled down because this gets hard fairly quick.  You don't want to put frosting or icing on a hot cupcake because it'll melt and drip everywhere (and it can make the cupcakes kind of gooey).

Mmmm.  NB maple syrup.  The recipe calls for three tablespoons.  I free poured.  I probably put about 1/4 of a cup or more.  I'm a maple syrup whore.

Here's a tip for putting your frosting/icing in a Wilton bag: Get a milk jug (the jug you put the bags of milk in), and stand your wilton bag in it (with the wilton tip in it already, not cut).  You can bend the top of the Wilton bag over the side of the jug (one side will go down, but it's not wide enough to totally fold it over).  Then use a spatula to scoop your icing/frosting in).  You can use a  tall glass or vase too!  Once you have all the frosting/icing in, push down on it all and get it as close to the tip as you can.  Folding down the top of the Wilton bag before you push will make sure nothing spills out of the bag from the pressure.  Once it's down as far as it will go, you can cut the tip of the bag and push down a bit more and the Wilton tip will slide into place.

You'll see that the tip of the bag is still on and that there is an air space between the frosting and the wilton tip.  Once you cut the tip of the bag and push down a bit, that'll go away.  By folding down the top of the bag, I limited how much frosting would spill out of the top when I was pushing the frosting down into the bag.

They weren't as big as I had hoped, but they came out a beautiful white & purple/blue.

Final Result.  Add a few blueberries for garnish on top!

Blueberry Cupcakes with Maple Brown Butter Frosting

UPCAKES

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 stick butter, melted
1 egg
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup milk
1 cup blueberries

Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix butter and egg lightly. Add buttermilk and milk. Add milk mixture to flour and mix until just blended. Toss blueberries in a tablespoon of flour and fold into batter. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

ICING
1 stick butter
3 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup milk
3 T maple syrup

In a saucepan, melt butter at medium temperature until golden brown. In a bowl, add butter to sugar, then add milk and syrup. Beat until smooth.

Coffee Cupcakes with Butterscotch Buttercream Frosting

I cheated with this one and used a boxed cake & added to it because I was feeling lazy.

Cupcakes:
Betty Crocker White Cake Mix
3 Eggs
1 1/4 cups water
1/4 cups oil
1/3 cup cocoa
3 tbsp coffee
1 tbsp nutella

Frosting:
1 C butter (room temperature)
2 1/4 cup icing sugar
1/2 C butterscotch
1/4 C milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
Dash Almond extract

Cupcakes
First thing I did was mix the coffee & water together until it was blended.  Add cake mix, water mix, oil & eggs to bowl & mix with beater.  Add in cocoa & nutella and mix on high until well blended.  Once mixed together, put into lined muffin tin.  Bake for 16-21 minutes st 325.  These took about 20 minutes to cook.

Frosting
Mix butter on high for a few minutes until it looks soft & whipped.  Add in butterscotch and let that soften, while beating on high. Add icing sugar, milk, vanilla, almond extract and butterscotch into bowl and mix on high.  Once it is blended and soft (it should be fluffy), load into a pastry bag. 

Once cupcakes are cooled, you can add it to the top & voila!