Cupcake Club and Snickers Rocky Road Cupcakes!

I was very excited about the upcoming cupcake club! The absence of Iron Cupcake had left a huge cupcake shaped void in my life...and so even though I was away the whole weekend house hunting in Wales I made sure I was going to make it to the first meet up (and hopefully not the last!) so it was a late night baking sesh for me!

My Snickers Rocky Road that I make is just one of my fail safe recipes, it is so amazingly easy to make and produces delicious results every time! so I knew it had to feature somehow! I settled on Snickers cupcake that I was going to fill with caramel and peanuts and then I was going to try a marshmallow frosting for the 'rocky road' part of it.

Here is the baking process.  I made these Devil's Food Cupcakes and adapted them slightly as part of a Snickers recipe.  They called for coffee granules but since I don't partake of any form of caffeine I left this out.  I read after on google that the coffee granules bring out the chocolate flavour so I should have probably added a bit more cooca powder to make up for omitting the granules but they still tasted pretty good to me.  I added a cup of chopped up peanuts mixed with some dulche de leche, and cut a hole in the top of each cupcake and filled them with this caramel mixture.

I then whipped up some marshmallow frosting.  It was my first time making this and I was a bit nervous it wouldn't work out! but it was super easy and it piped on like a dream, it really tasted just like marshmallow!

I then topped them with my Snickers Rocky Road which I had let set in little heart silicone cases to make the heart shape.  I got a bit carried away and these were really bigger than I had intended! I was planning on just cutting a little square out to top it with but they are so delicious that I figured no-one would mind having such a big topper!

So I set off for Cupcake Club and it was a great night of yummy cupcakes and good company.  Here is our little sampler plate we had.  Andrea made peanut butter cupcakes, and I don't usually like peanut butter but these were delicious and even had a reese's peanut butter cup in the bottom! Kelly, who hosted the event, made coconut hi-hats...the combo of coconut and marshmallow is always such a winner in my book and I loved the colour co-ordinating tops.  Mara made lemon and lime cupcakes with a mascarpone frosting which were delish, and a refreshing change from all the chocolate-y ness of the other cupcakes!

Kelly has written a more comprehensive write up here that you can check out.  

One of the best parts of the night was that Lisa from Yummy Boutique came along to answer all our cupcake related questions and tell us all about her business! It was fascinating being able to pick her brains and gave me a much better insight into what the life of a professional baker is actually like...I'm not sure I'm hardcore enough for it! She works right through the night before her Saturday market she does just to get everything baked and fresh! now that is dedication, you must go check out her stall on a Saturday outside Patridge's on the King's Road or order some of her cupcakes because they are delicious! She brought us these amazing fluffernutter cupcakes and the cake was so moist with a really creamy frosting!

Thanks to Kelly for arranging the meet-up, and to all the bakers for bringing such yummy treats!

And now onto the results of my 1st giveaway! Thanks to all those who entered and all my new followers :)

We have a winner!! Katiecakes, is now the owner of the brand new cupcake heaven book! congrats!

But...I was having so much fun with my giveaway I couldn't just stop at one winner! so I decided to have a runner up too...hooray! and they will win this book of yummy treats...

                                   

Congrats to Rhonda of Obsessed with Cupcakes for being runner up!

I'm joining in with these for Cupcake Tuesday, so head on over and see what everyone else has been whipping up this week!