Candy Corn Cupcakes

I love Halloween. I love the costumes and the decorations. I love the haunted houses and the jack o'lanterns. But most of all, I love candy corn.

I wanted to combine my favorite Halloween candy with my favorite baked good- viola! Candy corn cupcake.

Candy corn has a tendency to be overly sugary sweet and I know that a lot of people don't like it for that very reason. I wanted the cupcakes to give a hint of candy corn flavor that wasn't over powering or too sweet.

I scoured the internet to see if I could find any candy corn cupcake recipes, but no luck. Maybe my google-fu isn't as good as it should be, but as far as I know there isn't a recipe for candy corn cupcakes out on the old interwebs.

I decided to use a recipe for White Velvet cupcakes (from Cupcakes Galore by Gail Wagman) which includes mini marshmallows baked in. Then I chose to make Swiss Meringue Buttercream as the frosting, adding some honey to enhance the candy corn flavors.

As you can see from the picture below, my attempt to layer the colored batters didn't come out exactly as I planned. The marshmallows prevented the batter layers from settling evenly. But, I'm ok with that.


The cake tasted more like a sugar cookie to me, but the frosting was amazing. I just took the regular SMBC recipe and added about two teaspoons of honey (to taste). Mmmm....

Happy Halloween (a little early)!

Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

(click image to enlarge)

I was searching for a nice, light, summery cupcake to make when I visit my parents for their Mortgage Burning Party. I found a lot of great baking blogs, and on 52 Cupcakes I found the recipe for Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes with Marshmallow Fluff Frosting. I used to love Orange Creamsicles growing up, and I know my Dad has a special affinity for them too, so I decided to give the recipe a try.

The recipe itself was really easy. Cake mix from a box and an addition of pudding mix (not instant). Viola! And the cupcakes came out very airy, light, and moist. I took the first 12 out of the oven a little earlier than I should have, because they looked done.

I was also a little concerned that the Marshmallow Fluff frosting would be too sweet, however I was pleasantly surprised. The frosting melts easily though (we've had normal weather for June, high 70's and the 80's), so I would recommend putting these in the fridge until you're ready to eat them, if you live in a house sans A/C (like I do). I tried to tint the frosting orange, but regular food coloring was not cutting it (as you can see from the first photo), I bought frosting food coloring for next time.

ETA: I made these again in July, and the food coloring and more artful frosting make them look even yummier!