Milky Way Cupcakes

Are you shocked to see a dessert from me? It's about time I made another dessert. Nate and I had dinner with some of our favorite people, the Taggarts, last night. Cute Suzy made dinner and I brought this dessert. Everyone said they really enjoyed these cupcakes. Nate's favorite candy bar is a milky way, so I thought this might be a fun dessert. I saw a recipe for snickers cupcakes over at Homemade by Holman, and I simply switched it to milky ways. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
Cake-
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Frosting-
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup caramel sauce
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 lb powdered sugar
3 milky way candy bars for garnish


Preparation:
Cake-
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line pans with cupcake liners. Recipe yields about 30 cupcakes. Combine sugar through salt in a large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla and beat on low until just incorporated. Increase speed to medium and beat two minutes. Stir in boiling water, the batter will be thin. Transfer batter to prepared pans, filling each liner about 2/3 of the way full, approximately 1/4 cup of batter. Bake approximately 22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans about five minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

When cool, use a paring knife to cut a small cone shape out of the top of each cupcake. Add caramel sauce as desired. You can cut the point off the cone and add it back to the cupcake if desired.

Frosting-
Beat butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about two minutes. Add caramel sauce, heavy cream and vanilla and mix to incorporate. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, beating on low speed until incorporated to reach the right consistency. Increase speed to medium-high and whip about one minute until light and fluffy. Fill a piping bag and pipe onto cupcakes or frost as desired.

Chop candy bars and sprinkle over the top of cupcakes.