Butterfinger-y Cupcake

Butterfinger Cupcake

I make a pretty yummy dessert around Halloween time that is a "homemade version" of my most favorite candy bar. . . the Butterfinger! Now that I am in this cupcake mode,  I should try to make a cupcake that reminds me of that oh so fabulous candy bar. I was trying to figure out how to do it, when a friend told me she made a healthful Butterfinger shake and she used butterscotch pudding mix. I thought it was crazy, but I tried to make my own version, and lo and behold, it tasted just like a Butterfinger! I thought I will try to find a really great peanut butter cupcake recipe and add some butterscotch pudding mix to it. I found a fabulous starter recipe here. And bonus, it has a really good chocolate buttercream frosting recipe too!

As soon as they were cool enough, I frosted this yumminess. I will be totally honest, I am not one of those really good people who never taste a batter because of the raw eggs. I know, totally not OK, but I did it anyway :) When I tasted the batter, I thought the cupcake would be more "Reese's Peanut butter cup like". After it was baked and iced. I think it had a definite butterfinger taste. I made 18 out of this recipe, and I frosted 13 in this way. I didn't have enough to finish doing the little swirl, so for the remaining 5, I just slathered it on and then garnished it with crushed Butterfingers--I just barely had enough icing for this. I didn't even have enough left over to eat by itself later ;) This was a yummy cupcake. The cake itself was a little on the crumbly side, but it was oh so delicious! As soon as I got them done, I immediately shared this with the teachers at school. It was perfect timing. ..  most of them were finishing up lunch.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
2/3 cups sugar
3/4 cups butter, melted
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 4oz package butterscotch pudding mix

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 and prepare cupcake pan. I use liners. The Wilton Brand is OK, but I prefer the Reynolds brand.

Sift flour and baking powder together in a large bowl. Add in eggs and sugar and combine with an electric mixer. (It begins to look really lumpy, but don't worry, it will smooth out.) While mixing, add in the butter, then the vanilla.

You can use the non sugar-free option, this is just what I had available.

Mix in the peanut butter. . . stream in the milk. The last thing I added was my pudding mix. And I blended it together. I used my "handy dandy" Pampered Chef scoop, and I put 1 scoop in each, and I made 18. I baked these for about 20 minutes.

Frosting:
1/4 cup shortening (I use Butter Flavored Crisco)
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp Vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
2 TBSP milk

I put this together like I do all my buttercream recipes. I start by blending the butter. Then on this one I added the cocoa. I always do my milk and vanilla next. And my last ingredient is my powdered sugar. I do sift my powdered sugar, I think it makes a huge difference. I can always tweak my recipe a bit--add in more sugar or milk based on the consistency I want. This recipe would easily frost 12, but not quite all 18 since I like to pipe my frosting using a piping bag and a large tip (1M).

 Since I didn't quite have enough to pipe it on all the rest, I just "smeared" the frosting on top. I sprinkled crushed a Butterfinger candy bar on top to garnish.

Cupcakes with crushed Butterfingers on top.