Cupcakes are one of my favorite desserts, but not just any cupcakes - I love gourmet cupcakes. These are the cupcakes dripping in chocolate, topped with pillows of fluffy frosting, or drizzled with caramel sauce. In this E-Book, we've got tons of our best recipes for you to try, along with our favorite baking and decorating tricks.

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3. Creative Cupcake Ideas
“These are dessert cupcakes, not craft
cupcakes—good enough to take to a
dinner party and easy enough for anyone
to make. You’ll find filled cupcakes, ice
cream cupcakes, maple bacon cupcakes,
and more.”

4. Table of Contents:
Discovering Dessert Cupcakes................................................................................... 3
How to Frost a Cupcake like a Pro............................................................................ 4
Recommended Premade Frostings.............................................................................. 4
Five Essential Frosting Recipes for Cupcake Lovers................................................... 5
Basic Buttercream Frosting………………………………………………………………….............. 5
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting……………………………………………………………............. 6
Best Fudge Frosting………………………………………………………………………..................... 6
Cream Cheese Frosting……………………………………………………………………................... 7
Browned Butter Frosting……………………………………………………………………................ 7
How to Fill Cupcakes.................................................................................................... 8
Filling a Cupcake Afer you Frost It.............................................................................. 9
Lemon Cream Cupcakes............................................................................................. 10
Black Forest Cupcakes................................................................................................ 10
Eggnog Cupcakes........................................................................................................ 11
Caramel Apple Pie Filled Cupcakes............................................................................ 12
Chunky Monkey Banana Cupcakes............................................................................ 13
Pineapple Ginger Cupcakes........................................................................................ 14
Banana Pudding Cupcakes......................................................................................... 15
Chocolate Raspberry Buttercream Cupcakes............................................................. 15
Ice Cream Filled Cupcakes........................................................................................ 16
Drumstick Ice Cream Cupcakes................................................................................. 16
Dreamsicle Ice Cream Cupcakes................................................................................ 18
Root Beer Float Cupcakes.......................................................................................... 18
Eskimo Pie Ice Cream Cupcaks.................................................................................. 19
Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream Cupcakes...................................................................... 20
Peanut Butter Brownie Sundaes in a Cone................................................................ 21
Chocolate Coated Cupcakes...................................................................................... 22
Two Ways to Coat Cupcakes in Chocolate................................................................. 22
Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes...................................................................................... 24
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Cupcakes................................................................ 25
Grandpa Grumpy Cupcakes....................................................................................... 26
Chocolate Covered Caramel Apple Cupcakes............................................................ 27
Other Gourmet Cupcakes.......................................................................................... 28
How to Make Cupcake Sandwiches........................................................................... 28
Sticky Toffee Cupcakes............................................................................................... 29
Banana Sticy Toffee Cupcakes................................................................................... 30
Luscious Lingonberry Cupcakes................................................................................ 31
Easy Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting......................................... 32
Maple Bacon Cupcakes.............................................................................................. 33
Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes..................................................................................... 34
What You’ll Need: A Buyer’s Guide........................................................................ 36
Copyright 2013, The Prepared Pantry. All rights reserved.
The material herein is published by The Prepared Pantry for the private use of individuals
and may not be used for commercial purposes without the express consent of the publisher.
The information contained herein is believed accurate but the publisher makes no warranties,
express or implied, and the recipient is using this information at his or her own risk.

5. Discovering Dessert Cupcakes
I grew up in simpler times--or maybe a simpler
place. It was a little one-service-station town
in the West where everyone knew everyone.
When you became a teenager, you went to work
for a farmer. In between, you helped around
the home.
My mother had no daughters except for a
distant caboose and I was the oldest. Somehow,
I was the one to help Mother in the kitchen. I
remember mixing cakes by hand. She showed
me how to beat the batter by hand with
overhand strokes: 1, 2, 3, 4 . . . until I reached
200. Two hundred seemed like forever.
Cakes were usually for special occasions—an
extended family party, a birthday, or maybe
Sunday dinner. Sunday dinners were special
occasions. If it was for a birthday, it was a layer
cake or else it was a cake baked in a 9 x13-inch
pan with a layer of frosting added.
Occasionally, we made cupcakes. The cupcakes
were not exciting, individual servings made
with the same batter and same frosting as the
sheet cakes. They weren’t that exciting though
it was fun to stick candles in the centers for a
birthday.
Somewhere along the line, I discovered that
cupcakes could be luscious desserts, not just a
round of cake with frosting on top. Cupcakes
could hide chips or pieces of candy, they
could be filled, and they could be frosted with
fancy frostings and then topped some more. A
cupcake filled with Bavarian cream and with a
swirl of ganache was no longer a novelty but a
dessert fit for guests.
That’s what this book is about—luscious
dessert cupcakes. We’re concerned much
more with taste than being fancy though they
are certainly attractive. They are usually a
marriage of a better-than-most cake, a filling,
and the best frosting.
You’ll learn how to fill cupcakes with
everything from ice cream to marshmallow
cream. You’ll learn to make ice cream
cupcakes. You’ll learn how to make chocolate
coated cupcakes and other creative cupcakes.
I think you’ll enjoy learning how to make these
luscious dessert cupcakes. Your family and
friends will certainly enjoy eating them.
Happy baking.
3

6. How to Frost a Cupcake like a Pro
Recommended Premade
Frostings
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting Mix: Makes
light, fluffy buttercream frosting just like the
professional bakeries.
Frosting is delicious and fun; it allows for
creativity and flavor experimentation. But
frosting can also make or break your cupcakes.
That’s why we’ve started this book with
learning to use frostings like the pros.
About Stabilizers: Most whipped frostings
need to be stabilized, including four out of
five of these. Powdered sugar contains starch
and therefore stabilizes. Additionally, we use
the same stabilizers that we use for whipped
cream: meringue powder and cream cheese.
About Whipped Cream in Frostings: One
of the frostings on this list, the cream cheese
frosting has a substantial amount of heavy
whipping cream. Often you will see a recipe
with a little whipping cream, enough to hydrate
the powdered sugar. It adds a little more fat,
usually not significant compared to the fat
from the butter or cream cheese in the recipe.
In other recipes, there is much more whipping
cream, far more than that required to hydrate
the powdered sugar. These frostings must
be well whipped, almost like you are making
whipped cream. Enough air must be beat into
the cream to make a fluffy solid. If you don’t
beat these frostings enough, they’ll be a soggy
mess.
4
Sweet Sensations Buttercream Frosting Base:
With this base, you don’t have to be a pro to
make professional buttercream frosting.
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting Mix: It is
made with gourmet Ramstadt Breda cocoa for
the best chocolate frosting
Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting Mix: It has
the perfect color of pink and a ton of raspberry
flavor.
Original Cream Cheese Frosting Mix: This mix
gives you results that can be as good as any
homemade frosting.
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting Mix: The
cream cheese and chocolate makes this a rich
frosting.
Caramel Whipped Cream Base: If you want
people to go nuts over your desserts, top them
with caramel whipped cream.
Wilton Creamy White Buttercream Icing Mix:
This convenient mix has the delicious taste
and creamy texture of homemade buttercream
icing.
Sweet Sensations Salted Caramel Premium
Glossy Frosting: The taste and silky smooth
texture of this caramel frosting is great!
Sweet Sensations Chocolate Fudge Premium
Glossy Frosting: This is a satiny smooth cooked
frosting without a hint of powdered sugar. It’s
attractive and delicious.

7. Five Essential Frostings
for Cupcake Lovers
We’ve compiled a list of “go to” frosting recipies
that are great for every cupcake. The first is
your Basic Buttercream Frosting. Buttercream
frosting is made with shortening or butter
or a combination of both. Then there’s our
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting, which similar
to the Basic Buttercream Frosting but with
plenty of choclate.
Next is our Fudge Frosting. Usually fugde
frostings are heavy and gooey, but this one
is light while still maintaining that fudgy
goodness.
The fourth frosting recipe is a Light and Fluffy
Cream Cheese Frosting. This recipe combines
fluffy whipped cream with cream cheese to
create a delicious topping for any cupcake.
Last is our Browned Butter Frosting. This is
not a basic frosting, but we’re in love with this
melt-in-your-mouth frosting. It’s too good not
to include!
Basic Buttercream
Frosting
Use this on cakes and cupcakes. It can be piped
or spread. Add color and flavor to it to fit your
project. We use Americolor color gels and
Marsden and Bathe flavors. This buttercream
frosting is stable in all but the warmest
weather.
Buttercream frosting is made with shortening
or butter or a combination of both. This
recipe has a high percentage of butter for
flavor. Butter has a lower melting point than
shortening and so a stabilizer is required.
Butter also tints the frosting to off-white. If you
want a pure white frosting, you will need to go
to all shortening or add white food color. You
can buy white vanilla so that the vanilla does
not tint your frosting.
Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup shortening
1 pound powdered sugar
2 tablespoons meringue powder
1 teaspoon flavor or extract of your choice
a couple tablespoons of milk as needed for
consistency
optional food color gel
Directions
1. With the paddle attachment and your
stand-type mixer, beat the butter,
shortening, powdered sugar, and
meringue powder together.
2. Add the flavor and color. Beat the
frosting, adding enough milk to reach the
desired consistency.
Baker’s note: Apply your buttercream frosting
at room temperature. You can spread on a
thick coating of frosting with a spatula or pipe
it on with a pastry bag and either a star tip or
a round tip.
Your frosting may be stored in the
refrigerator for up to three days.
5

8. Chocolate Buttercream
Frosting
This is the sister recipe to our basic
buttercream recipe. It is perfect for cakes and
cupcakes.
Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup shortening
1 pound powdered sugar
2 tablespoons meringue powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup dark chocolate chips or dark
chocolate wafers
milk as needed for consistency
Directions
1. With the paddle attachment and your
stand-type mixer, beat the butter,
shortening, powdered sugar, and
meringue powder together. Add the
vanilla.
2. Beat the frosting, adding enough milk to
reach just to reach a stiff consistency.
3. Melt the chocolate and let it cool
slightly. (If the chocolate is too cool, it
will solidify before combining with the
frosting.) Mix the chocolate into about
one-fourth of the frosting.
4. Combine the chocolate frosting with
the rest of the frosting. Add more
milk, if necessary, to reach the desired
consistency.
6
Best Fudge Frosting
This is great light frosting. It is a whipped
frosting stabilized with the starch in the cocoa
and in the powdered sugar plus meringue
powder. If your cake or cupcakes are going to
be in a warm room, add another tablespoon or
two of meringue powder. This is stable enough
to be piped but can be spread.
Ingredients
1 cup (2 cubes) butter, softened
3/4 cup Ramstadt Breda Medium Dark
Cocoa or equal
5 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons meringue powder
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup light corn syrup
Directions
1. Whip the butter in your stand type mixer
with a whip attachment. Add the cocoa
and meringue powder and whip until
smooth.
2. Add the powdered sugar, whipping
cream, and corn syrup. Whip until
fluffy.

9. Cream Cheese Frosting
for Cupcakes
We make a Light and Fluffy Cream Cheese
Frosting that is our “go to” frosting for
pumpkin squares, carrot cake, zucchini bars,
and snacking cakes. It’s too light to hold up
well on a cupcake so we revised it to make
it a little more stable. Still with this much
whipping cream in the frosting, it is more light
and fluffy than most cream cheese frostings.
Because it has so much whipping cream you
must beat the frosting hard to incorporate air
into the whipping cream and make it firm. Use
the whip attachment on your stand-type mixer
and beat it at medium-high speed until it is
light and fluffy.
Ingredients
4 oz. of cream cheese (1/2 of an eightounce block), softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 cups powdered sugar
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons meringue powder
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
Browned Butter Frosting
This may not be a basic frosting but it is so
good, I just had to include it. The butter is
browned on the stove top before the sugar is
added. Spread this frosting.
Ingredients
3/4 cup butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon butterscotch flavor
3-4 tablespoons milk as needed to reach
the right consistency
Directions
1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan until
it has started to brown. Watch it closely.
It should be just amber in color, not dark
brown.
2. Let the browned butter cool for a few
minutes then pour the clearer liquid
off the top into a small bowl leaving
the dark solids and a little liquid in the
pan. Place the browned butter in the
refrigerator to cool for about an hour. It
should cool to a gel.
3. Add the flavor and browned butter to
the powdered sugar in a large bowl.
Whip with an electric mixer. Thin with
additions of milk as needed.
1. Cream the granulated sugar with the
cream cheese. Add the other ingredients
and beat until light and fluffy.
7

10. How to Fill Cupcakes
You can use the cupcake corer just as you did
with ice cream. You’ll want to cover the filling
with a piece of the cake plug.
Filling Cupcakes with Sauce: A while ago,
we made our sticky toffee cupcakes. We filled
them with toffee sauce and they were incredible.
We make a lot of cupcakes and we make them
for taste, not for show, so they’re not hard
and they’re nearly always filled. Here are the
different types of fillings we use, and how to
use them yourself.
Bavarian Cream and Other Pastry
Fillings: Use premade fillings in dispenser
bags. Just clip the corner, insert the clipped
corner into the cupcake, and squeeze. There’s
no need to core the cupcakes or even cut slits.
As you squeeze filling into a cupcake, it will
begin to swell and get heavier. If you squeeze
too much, cracks will start to develop around
the hole. It’s okay—you’ll cover it with frosting
anyway. After two or three cupcakes, you’ll
have a sense of how much to squeeze.
Pudding, Whipped Cream, and Marshmallow Cream: You can use a cupcake corer
or a pastry bag to fill cupcakes. I would use a
pastry bag; it’s quicker. Equip it with a star tip
or a longer narrow tip, fill the bag, stick the tip
into each cupcake and squeeze. The hole will be
small and you’ll cover it with frosting.
8
We had never filled cupcakes with a liquid,
even a thick liquid. It worked well with the
sticky toffee cupcakes because the cake was
fairly dense and moist. Would it work in other
applications? We set off to make Peanut Butter
Fudge Brownie Cupcakes and fill them with a
fudgy ice cream topping.
We used a cream cake mix, our Very Fudgy
Baby Cake Mix. This cake is denser than the
light and airy cakes made from box cakes
in the grocery store. It’s about half way to a
pound cake. We wanted to see if the cream
cake would hold the sauce without leaking or
coming apart and it worked.

11. Filling a Cupcake After
You Frost it
We learned something new the other day: we
learned that we could fill cupcakes after they
are frosted. That’s counter-intuitive. We think
of frosting as the decoration and the thing that
goes on very last, but the last step can actually
be the filling therefore becoming part of the
decorations. It’s not only easy, it’s very quick.
We wanted to try one more test—filling store
bought mixes. We bought mixes at the grocery
store and made cupcakes, filled them with ice
cream sauce, and set them aside to see what
they would be like the next day. We expected
them to be soggy. They weren’t.
At the same time, we made sticky toffee
pudding cupcakes and set them aside for 24
hours. The toffee sauce is much thinner than
the ice cream topping. As moist and dense as
sticky toffee pudding cake is, the cake was a bit
soggy after 24 hours.
The conclusion is that thick sauces will work in
both cream cake mixes and the lighter mixes
from the store. (We’re biased; we like the cream
cake mixes.) Some thinner sauces are okay if
you are going to use the cupcakes within a few
hours and probably won’t work at all with light
airy box mixes.
Here’s how. You will need a bag of premade
pastry filling or a pastry bag equipped with a
star or round tip.
1. Cut a 1/4 inch corner from a bag of
premade pastry filling or fill your pastry
bag.
2. Make and frost your cupcakes.
3. Stick the tip of the pastry bag through
the top of the cupcake, right through
the frosting, to the center of the cupcake
and squeeze to fill the cupcake just as
you would do with a cupcake that is not
frosted.
4. As you withdraw the tip, put a little swirl
of filling on top to hide the hole.
That’s all there is too it. You have a cute little
circle of filling poking through the frosting.
And you have a new way to make and fill
cupcakes. You can use this technique with
almost any filled cupcakes. You can use pastry
fillings or puddings.
Look at all the possibilities matching fillings to
cakes to frostings. It’s no wonder that we rarely
make cupcakes without filling them. You’ll do
the same.
9

12. Lemon Cream Cupcakes
Black Forest Cupcakes
These are wonderful creamy cupcakes with a
bright, lemon flavor. The cake is lemon, the
filling is lemon, the frosting is a lemon cream
cheese frosting, and it’s topped with lemon
bark.
Black Forest is a mixture of chocolate and
cherry. We used a boxed cake mix and filled
the cupcakes with cherry pastry filling. We
then used a chocolate buttercream frosting mix
and added a teaspoon of cherry flavoring. We
sprinkled the cupcakes with Black Forest bark
topping.
This is a great frosting for lemon lovers. It’s a
creamy frosting made with cream cheese that
packs a lot of flavor. It works well with a pastry
bag. No cooking is required.
Ingredients
Boxed Lemon Cake mix
Lemon Pastry Filling
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (one stick) butter, softened
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
3 to 4 cups powdered sugar
Zest from one lemon
Lemon bark
Directions
1. Bake cake mix as directed and let cool on
wire rack.
2. Snip a quarter-inch corner off the 2 lb.
pastry bag. Insert the snipped corner
into the top of a cupcake. Squeeze to fill
the center of the cupcake.
3. Beat cream cheese, butter, and lemon
juice together with an electric mixer.
4. Add three cups powdered sugar and
beat until well mixed and fluffy. Add
more as necessary to reach the desired
consistency. Add the zest.
5. Decorate the frosted cupcakes with
lemon bark topping.
6. Frost onto the cupcakes using a pastry
bag with a star tip.
10
Ingredients
Very Fudgy Baby Cakes Cake Mix or
equivalent
Cherry Pastry Filling
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
1 teaspoon Cherry Flavoring
Black Forest bark
Directions
1. Make a batch of chocolate cupcakes with
a boxed cake mix such as our. Let them
cool on a rack.
2. Snip a quarter-inch corner off the 2 lb.
pastry bag. Insert the snipped corner into
the top of a cupcake. Squeeze to fill the
center of the cupcake.
3. Spread a thin layer of cherry pastry filling
on the tops of the cupcakes.
4. Make the chocolate buttercream frosting
recipe found earlier in this book, or use
your favorite chocolate buttercream
frosting. Add a teaspoon of cherry
flavoring.
5. Frost the cupcakes. Decorate with black
forest bark topping or other decorations.

13. Eggnog Cupcakes
We used our Vanilla Bean Baby Cakes cake
mix and added eggnog to both the mix and
the frosting. Pretty simple. Could you use a
white cake mix from the store? I think so but
I don’t think those mixes would work quite as
well. Most of them are really light and airy, not
much substance. The frosting and the cream
filling tends to overwhelm the light cake—not
enough balance. The baby cakes mix is a
cream cake mix, denser and moister so you get
more cake in each bite. I don’t think the store
mixes would be bad though. If you go that
way, reduce the amount of frosting and filling
that you use. This mix makes 18 cupcakes.
You’ll have frosting and Bavarian cream left
over for your next project.
Ingredients
Vanilla Bean Baby Cakes Cake Mix or
equivalent
1/2 cup eggnog
4 teaspoons Butter Rum flavor
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
Bavarian Crème Pastry Filling
Sweet Sensations Buttercream Frosting
Base or equivalent
Eggnog, enough to replace water in
frosting recipe
2 teaspoons Butter Rum flavor
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Directions
1. Make the cake mix per directions except
substitute eggnog for water. Add the
butter rum flavor and nutmeg. Bake as
directed.
2. Cut a 1/4-inch corner off the dispenser
pack of pastry filling. Insert the cut
corner into the center of the cupcake to a
depth of about 1/2-inch.
3. Squeeze the dispenser bag so that the
Bavarian cream flows from the bag into
the cupcake. You will feel the cupcake
swell and get heavier. Store your leftover
filling in the refrigerator.
4. Make the frosting per the directions on
the package but substitute eggnog for
the water. Add the butter rum flavor and
nutmeg.
5. Frost the cupcakes with a pastry bag or
spread a thick layer of frosting on the
cupcakes with knife. Sprinkle with a
little cinnamon or nutmeg as a garnish if
desired.
11

14. Caramel Apple Pie Filled
Cupcakes
Directions
1. Use our Vanilla Baby Cakes cake mix.
Mix and bake according to package
directions. Add 1-1/2 teaspoons of good
quality cinnamon.
2. Clip a corner on the two-pound pack of
apple pie filling and squeeze about 1/3
ounce through the top of each baked
cupcake. If you use apple pie filling, load
a pastry bag equipped with a star tip.
3. Make the frosting with butter, not
shortening. Add the caramel flavor to
taste.
These are scrumptious, filled cupcakes with
an apple pie filling or apple pastry filling.
(We recommend apple pastry filling.A pastry
filling is more concentrated, has more flavor,
and a little pastry filling balances better in a
cupcake.) It’s topped with caramel frosting.
Ingredients
Vanilla Bean Baby Cake Mix or equivalent
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
Apple pastry filling or Apple Pie filling
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting Mix or
equivalent
1 1/2 teaspoons Caramel flavor
12
4. After the cupcakes are baked, frost them
with the caramel buttercream frosting.
5. Use the premade pastry filling or apple
pie filling and fill the cupcakes. Press
the end of the bag or a star tip through
the frosting to the center of each cupcake
and squeeze to deposit the filling. As
you pull the tip from the cupcake, put a
little swirled of filling on top of the cup
covering the hole.
6. Garnish your filled cupcakes with
chopped nuts or a drizzle of cinnamon or
caramel sauce.

15. Chunky Monkey Cupcakes
These cupcakes are incredible! Bananas,
chocolate chips and walnuts all in one cupcake
with banana Bavarian crème filling and banana
frosting. Practically banana everything. The
chocolate chips and walnuts make them
chunky and the bananas make them monkey
inspired. These cupcakes are out of this world!
Make them today. You won’t regret it.
Ingredients
Vanilla Bean Baby Cake Mix or equivalent
1 teaspoon baking powder
2. Fold in the chocolate pieces and walnuts.
3 large eggs
1 cup mashed banana
3. Scrape the batter into paper liners in
a muffin pan. You should get 18 to 20
regular-sized cupcakes.
1 1/2 teaspoons Banana flavor
4. Bake for 17 minutes or until done.
2/3 cup walnut pieces
5. Mix the Bavrian crean and mashed
bananas until well combined. Put the
filling into a pastry bag with a star tip.
Insert the tip into the cupcake and
squeeze about 1/3 ounce of filling into it.
1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup Bavarian Cream pastry filling
1/3 cup mashed bananas
1 teaspoon Banana flavor
1 cup butter
2-1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons meringue powder
4 tablespoons milk or cream, more or less
to reach the right consistency
Directions
6. Mix banana flavor, butter, powdered
sugar, meringue powder, and milk
or cream until well combined and a
whipped frosting consistency.
7. Pipe the frosting onto each cupcake using
a pastry bag with a star tip. Sprinkle with
chopped walnut pieces if desired.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
1. Mix the cake mix, baking powder, eggs,
oil, bananas, and banana flavor together
in your stand-type mixer with the paddle
attachment until mixed. Turn the mixer
to medium-high and beat for three
minutes.
13

16. Pineapple Ginger
Cupcakes
Directions
1. Mix and bake the cupcakes according to
package directions adding the candied
ginger, ground ginger and cinnamon.
2. Snip off tip of one filling bag, insert it
into the baked cupcake, and squeeze a
small amount into it. Repeat with other
filling.
These are made with ginger spice cupcakes,
pineapple and cream cheese pastry filling, and
a pineapple cream cheese frosting or ginger
buttercream frosting.
Ingredients
Vanilla Bean Baby Cake Mix or equivalent
1/2 cup Candied Ginger pieces
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Cream Cheese pastry filling
Pineapple pastry filling
1/2 cup Buttercream frosting base
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup boiling water
1 pound powdered sugar (as needed)
1 cup softened butter
1 8-ounce package cream cheese
1 teaspoon pineapple flavor
Lemon Yellow Americolor food coloring
gel or equal
14
3. Add sugar to hot water and stir until
dissolved. Add frosting base and whip
with whisk attachment until peaks
form. Add powdered sugar and beat
until completely blended. Add butter
and cream cheese and whip until well
blended. Add more powdered sugar to
reach desired consistency. Squeeze a few
drops of food coloring into frosting and
beat until uniform. Pipe onto cupcakes.
4. Fill each cupcake with a little cream
cheese filling and then a little pineapple
filling. Make either the pineapple or
ginger frosting and pipe onto each
cupcake.
Baker’s note: For ginger butter cream frosting,
make our basic buttercream frosting and add a
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger.

17. Banana Pudding Cupcakes Chocolate Raspberry
Buttercream Cupcakes
Anyone who is a fan of bananas will love
these cupcakes. They are made from a vanilla
cake mix, filled with banana pudding, frosted
with banana buttercream and topped with a
fresh banana slice. To give the cupcake a little
crunch, we placed a Nilla Wafer in the bottom
of the cupcake tin before baking and then
topped the completed cupcake with crushed
Nilla Wafer pieces. Can you say “yum?”
Ingredients
Vanilla Baby Cake Mix or equivalent
1 teaspoon Banana flavor
Nilla Wafers
Instant banana pudding
Basic Buttercream recipe
1/2 teaspoon Banana flavor
Directions
1. Place one Nilla Wafer cookie in the
bottom of each cupcake cup in the baking
sheet. Pour batter on top and bake the
cupcakes as directed on package adding
the banana flavor before baking.
2. Make the pudding as directed on the
package. Put into a piping bag with a star
tip. Squeeze about 1/3 ounce through
the top of each baked cupcake.
3. You can use our basic buttercream recipe
found earlier in this book or use your
favorite buttercream frosting recipe. Add
the banana flavoring to taste.
4. Bake cupcakes and let cool on wire rack.
Fill with the banana pudding. Pipe the
banana buttercream frosting onto the
cupcake using a star tip. Top with banana
slice and crushed Nilla Wafer pieces. To
prevent browning of the banana, be sure
not to top the cupcake with the banana
slice until ready to serve.
This cupcake is definitely for raspberry lovers.
It is made with a chocolate cake mix and
chocolate chips added to the batter. Then we
filled them with raspberry pastry filling, frosted
them with vanilla raspberry buttercream and
topped them off with a fresh raspberry. If you
are a raspberry lover, then you will love these
cupcakes.
Ingredients
Very Fudgy Baby Cake Mix or equivaltent
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Raspberry pastry filling
Buttercream frosting recipe
1/4 cup raspberries
Directions
1. Bake the cupcakes as directed on the
package, adding the chocolate chips
before baking.
2. Clip a corner on the two-pound pack
of filling and squeeze about 1/3 ounce
through the top of each baked cupcake.
3. You can use our basic buttercream
recipe found earlier in this book. Mix the
raspberries into the buttercream until
well combined.
4. Fill cupcakes with the raspberry filling.
Pipe the raspberry buttercream onto the
cupcake with a star tip. Top with a fresh
raspberry.
15

18. Chapter 1 Chapter Title
Ice Cream Filled Cupcakes
Drumstick Cupcakes
When I was a kid I loved to get these drumstick
ice cream treats from the corner store. They
were made with vanilla ice cream in a waffle
cone with a coating of chopped peanuts and
chocolate over the mound of ice cream. This is
our version in a cupcake.
We’ve been making ice cream cupcakes for
several years now. They never fail to delight.
Watch kids light up when they bite into
cupcakes and find ice cream in the center.
Watch the puzzled look on their parents’ faces
when they try to figure how you got the ice
cream inside. Whether its winter or summer,
kids or adults, these cupcakes are always a
hit. They’re pretty, unique, easy to serve, and
refreshing.
Heres how to turn your favorite cupcake into
an ice cream filled cupcake in four easy steps.
Step 1: Make the cupcakes according to
package instructions or use your recipe from
scratch.
Step 2: Use an ice cream cupcake tool to cut a
core from the cupcakes. The tool will cut a plug
from each cupcake with a simple twist of the
wrist. Unless you are making mini cupcakes,
use the larger corer.
Step 3: Fill them with ice cream. Use the
cupcake tool to cut plugs from a block of ice
cream just as you did with the cupcakes. Place
the tip of the tool in each cupcake hole and
press the plunger button. The plunger will
insert the ice cream plug in the cupcakes.
Step 4: Cover the holes with frosting and
freeze them. That’s all there is to it.
16
The cake is a vanilla bean cream cake, denser
than cupcakes made from store mi xes. The
center is vanilla ice cream. It’s frosted with
vanilla buttercream, then dipped in chocolate
ganache, and rolled in chopped peanuts.
Since it’s filled with ice cream, it must be kept
frozen. If you don’t want to do that, you can
fill the centers with Bavarian cream.
Ingredients
Vanilla Bean Baby Cake Mix or equivalent
Vanilla Ice Cream
Buttercream Frosting recipe
Salted peanuts chopped into small pieces,
about 1/8-inch.
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 ounces dark chocolate wafers or cut
chocolate into pieces
4 tablespoons butter

19. Directions
1. Mix and bake cake mix according to
package directions.
2. Use the ice cream cupcake tool. Use the
larger diameter fitting and cut a plug out
of each cupcake. Use the same fitting to
cut the ice cream plugs and insert them
into the cupcakes.
3. You can use our vanilla buttercream
frosting mix, our basic buttercream
recipe or a recipe of your choice. Make
the frosting with butter, not shortening.
Dipping the Frosting
4. Bring the cream to a boil. Remove
from the heat and add the vanilla. In a
medium bowl, pour the hot cream over
the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate
is melted. Stir in the butter. Let the
ganache cool until it reaches a desired
thick consistency. You can heat it or cool
it as needed.
Method 2: You can pipe the frosting on with
a star tip or to get pillowy mounds of frosting
you can use a round tip on a pastry bag. Then
dip the frosted part of the cupcake in ganache.
5. Use one of the three methods to frost the
cupcakes and then roll the freshly frosted
and dipped cupcakes in chopped nuts.
Method 1: You can spread the frosting on
with a knife and then dip it in the ganache, like
pictured on the previous page.
Method 3: Using an ice cream scoop, scoop
a mound of frosting and place it on top of the
cupcake. Dip the mound of frosting into the
warm ganache and roll in chopped nuts.
Baker’s note: If you prefer a thinner ganache
you can add more cream. Once frosted and
covered with nuts, be sure to keep your
cupcakes frozen until you are ready to serve
them.
17

20. Dreamsicle Cupcakes
Root Beer Float Cupcakes
If you like orange sherbet, you will love these
cupcakes! They are an orange flavored cupcake
made from a vanilla cake mix. Then we filled
them with orange sherbet and topped them
with orange and vanilla swirl frosting. They are
to die for. Or should I say they are to “dream”
for.
This is our version of a root beer float made
into a cupcake. Made with a vanilla cake mix,
filled with root beer ice cream and frosted with
vanilla and root beer swirled frosting, this cupcake will have your family begging for more,
guaranteed.
Ingredients
Vanilla Baby Cake Mix or equivalent
1 teaspoon Orange flavor
Orange Sherbet
Buttercream Frosting recipe
1/4 teaspoon Orange flavor
1/4 teaspoon Vanilla flavor
Directions
1. Mix and bake cupcakes according to
package directions, adding the flavor into
the batter.
2. Use an ice cream cupcake tool. Use the
larger diameter fitting and cut a plug out
of each cupcake. Use the same fitting to
cut sherbet plugs and insert them into the
cupcakes.
3. You can make our basic buttercream
from earlier in this book or use your
favorite buttercream recipe. Divide the
frosting in half and put in separate bowls.
Add the orange flavor to one bowl and
the vanilla flavor to other bowl. Add more
to taste if desired. Put both frostings into
one piping bag, one flavor on each side of
the bag, not one on top of the other.
4. Fill the cupcakes with orange sherbet.
5. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes with a
star tip. Be sure to make the frosting have
a swirl effect with the different flavors.
Keep the cupcakes frozen until ready to
serve.
18
Ingredients
Vanilla Baby Cake Mix or equivalent
Vanilla Ice Cream or Root Beer Ice Cream
Buttercream Frosting recipe
1/4 teaspoon Root Beer flavor
1/4 teaspoon Vanilla flavor
Directions
1. Mix and bake according to package directions.
2. Use an ice cream cupcake tool. Use the
larger diameter fitting and cut a plug out
of each cupcake. Use the same fitting to
cut ice cream plugs and insert them into
the cupcakes.
3. You can make our basic buttercream
from earlier in this book or use your
favorite buttercream frpsting recipe. Divide the frosting in half and put in separate bowls. Add the root beer flavoring
to one bowl and the vanilla flavoring to
other bowl. Add more to taste if desired.
Put both frostings into one piping bag,
one flavor on each side of the bag, not
one on top of the other.
4. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes with
a star tip. Be sure to make the frosting
have a swirl effect with the different
flavors. Keep the cupcakes frozen until
ready to serve.

21. Eskimo Pie Cupcakes
Directions
1. Mix and bake cupcakes according to
package directions.
2. Use an ice cream cupcake tool. Use the
larger diameter fitting and cut a plug out
of each cupcake. Use the same fitting to
cut ice cream plugs and insert them into
the cupcakes.
3. You can make our basic buttercream
from earlier in this book or use your
favorite buttercream frosting recipe. Add
the vanilla flavoring (add more to taste if
desired).
If you’re a fan of those delicious Eskimo Pies,
also known as “Fat Boys,” then you are in for
a real treat. These cupcakes are made from
a chocolate cake mix, filled with vanilla ice
cream, frosted with vanilla buttercream and
dipped in rich chocolate ganache.
Ingredients
Very Fudgy Baby Cake Mix or equivalent
Vanilla Ice Cream
Buttercream Frosting recipe
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla flavor
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 ounces dark chocolate wafers or
chocolate cut into pieces
4. Bring the cream to a boil. Remove
from the heat and add the vanilla. In a
medium bowl, pour the hot cream over
the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate
is melted. Stir in the butter. Let the
ganache cool until it reaches a desired
thick consistency. You can heat it or cool
it as needved.
5. Frost the cupcakes. You can either pipe
your frosting onto your cupcakes or
spread the frosting on with a knife. If
you spread it on, make it thick. To get
pillowy mounds of frosting, use a round
tip on a pastry bag, not a star tip. Dip
the frosted cupcake tops in the warm
chocolate ganache. Keep the cupcakes
frozen until ready to serve.
4 tablespoons butter
19
19

22. Cherry Chocolate Ice
Cream Cupcakes
Directions
1. Mix and bake cupcakes according to
package directions.
2. Use an ice cream cupcake tool. Use the
larger diameter fitting and cut a plug out
of each cupcake. Use the same fitting to
cut ice cream plugs and insert them into
the cupcakes.
These are a takeoff of our Grumpy Cupcakes
that were such a hit in the store. These are
chocolate cupcakes with a cherry ice cream
filling, a puddle of cherry filling on top, and a
splash of chocolate ganache over the cherry.
Ingredients
Very Fudgy Baby Cake Mix or equivalent
Cherry Cordial Ice Cream
Cherry pastry filling or Cherry Pie filling
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 ounces dark chocolate wafers or chocolate cut into pieces
4 tablespoons butter
20
3. Bring the cream to a boil. Remove from
the heat and add the vanilla. In a medium bowl, pour the hot cream over
the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is
melted. Stir in the butter. Let the ganache cool until it reaches a desired thick
consistency. You can heat it or cool it as
needed.
4. Place a scoop of cherry pastry filling on
top and spread it to within a half inch of
the edges of the cupcake.
5. Place another scoop of chocolate ganache
over the cherry filling. The ganache
should be viscous enough that it runs to
edges with little dripping off the cupcakes. Be sure to put the cupcakes in the
freezer until ready to serve.
Variation
You can make these cupcakes without the ice
cream if you’d like. All you have to do if replace the ice cream filling with cherry or cream
cheese pastry filling. This way, freezing the
cupcakes after assembly is not required.

23. Peanut Butter Brownie
Sundaes in a Cone
One of our readers wrote and asked if the
peanut butter brownie cupcake recipe could be
baked in an ice cream cone. Very nice idea. So
we whipped up a batch and it worked perfectly. We think this would be a great idea for a
birthday party or for the kids at the next family
reunion. And this is such an easy recipe, you
can whip up a batch of cones in no time.
Ingredients
12 flat bottomed ice cream cones
2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Peanut butter
Ice cream
Cake decorations
Directions
4. Stir the sugar into the chocolate mixture.
Stir the eggs and vanilla into the mixture.
Stir in the flour.
5. Fill the ice cream cone cups about three
fourths full of batter. Put a teaspoon of
peanut butter in the center of each.
6. Bake for 20 to 24 minutes depending on
the size of the cone. A toothpick should
still have gooey crumbs on it if tested.
7. When completely cooled, put a scoop of
ice cream in the tops of the cups. Sprinkle the ice cream with cake decorations
of your choice. Store in the freezer until
ready to serve.
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Wrap each cone in aluminum foil and
place them in a muffin tin.
3. In a medium bowl, melt the chocolate
and butter together in the microwave,
stirring as needed.
21

24. Chocolate Coated Cupcakes
Two Ways to Coat
Cupcakes in Chocolate
Chocolate ganache is incredible. It’s made
with cream, butter, and chocolate. With ingredients like that, no wonder it tastes great. It’s
quick and simple to make.
These are really luscious. It takes a few minutes for the dipping but they’re worth it.
You can put a coating of chocolate over just
about any cupcake, even frosted ones. You
simply dip the cupcakes, upside down, in
chocolate to cover the tops.
As soft as buttercream frosting is, you can dip
buttercream frosted cupcakes in chocolate. In
fact, they’re the best. While the chocolate is
still soft, you can sprinkle on chopped nuts or
candies.
So you can take your favorite cupcakes—say
chocolate cherry cupcakes or the eggnog cupcakes found in this book—and coat them with
chocolate.
Recently we made chocolate cupcakes with
vanilla buttercream and dipped them in chocolate. Then we made chocolate cherry cheesecake cupcakes and dipped them in chocolate.
Then we made peanut butter cupcakes and
dipped them in chocolate and topped them
with chopped peanuts. You get the idea.
22
Use this recipe and a good quality chocolate
to make the ganache. We recommend wafers,
not chips, since wafers are made with a better
chocolate and are of candy-making quality.
The following recipe will yield a thick, paste
like ganache. You may thin your ganache with
more cream or warm it slightly to make it
more viscous. Don’t get it too warm or it will
melt the frosting. The thinner the chocolate,
the thinner the coating. If you want a thick
coating of chocolate—as we do—you want the
chocolate as a thick sauce. If the coating is too
thin, you can dip them a second time.

25. Chocolate Ganache
We use this chocolate ganache recipe for most
of our chocolate coated cupcakes. Use this
recipe and a good quality of chocolate. We
recommend wafers, not chips, since wafers are
made with a better chocolate and are of candymaking quality. You may thin your ganache
with more cream.
You will need:
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 ounces semisweet or dark chocolate, cut
into pieces
4 tablespoons butter
Bring the cream to a boil. Remove from the
heat and add the vanilla. In a medium bowl,
pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Stir
until the chocolate is melted. Stir in the butter.
Let the ganache cool until it reaches a desired
thick consistency.
You can heat it or cool it as needed to get a
thick coating.
A chocolate pot is my preferred way for quick
and simple dipping. There is no fuel to mess
with; just plug the pot into an outlet. There is a
setting for melting and setting for keeping the
chocolate warm for dipping. Simple.
About that really good chocolate—use wafers,
not chips. Wafers are made for candy, not for
cookies. Wafers are smoother and richer with
a finer grind and more cocoa butter. Chips are
for cookies, not dipping.
To dip the cupcakes:
Once your ganache cools to the proper consistency, dip the frosted cupcakes in the ganache.
You want a thick coat, thick enough the frosting does not show through. If it does, wait a
minute and then dip them a second time. Then
let the ganache cool a bit so that it is not so
thin. Put a generous coating of chocolate on
the cupcakes.
Coating with melted chocolate will create a
hard coating on your cupcakes while the coating made with ganache will be softer.
The Second Way to Coat
Cupckaes in Chocoalte
Dip your cupcakes in melted chocolate. I
prefer dark chocolate but milk chocolate works
too. You can heat chocolate in the microwave
if you are careful not to overheat it but a fondue pot or chocolate pot is better. Either will
heat the chocolate gently and will keep it warm
for continued dipping.
23

26. Boston Cream
Pie Cupcakes
These are big boy cupcakes—though your kids
will love them too. They are made like a Boston
Cream Pie: yellow cake, vanilla cream, and
fudgy topping.
Ingredients
White or Yellow Cake Mix
Bavarian Cream pastry filling or vanilla
cream filling
Chocoalte ganache
Directions
1. Mix and bake cupcakes as directed on
package.
2. Put the filling into a pastry bag with a
star tip. Insert the tip into the cupcake
and squeeze about 1/3 ounce of filling
into it. Or just cut the tip off the Bavarian
Cream packet and fill cupcakes.
24
3. Use the ganache recipe at the beginning
of this section. For Boston Cream Pies,
you want the ganache thin enough to
drizzle down the sides but thick enough
to pile up a little.
4. You can let the ganache cool in the
refrigerator and then beat it with a handheld electric mixer until it is soft and
smooth and frosting-like. This puts a
thicker frosting on the cupcake.
5. Another option is to double dip the
cupcakes in the warm ganache. This
makes them look a little prettier but it
won’t be as thick.

27. Chocolate Peanut Butter
Pretzel Cupcakes
Directions
1. Mix and bake cupcakes according to
package directions.
2. Clip a corner on the two-pound pack and
squeeze about 1/3 ounce through the top
of each baked cupcake.
3. You can use our vanilla buttercream
frosting mix, our basic buttercream
recipe earlier in this book, or a recipe
of your choice. Make the frosting with
butter, not shortening.
Did you know that you can make ganache with
peanut butter? You can! And since ganache is
easy, this is an easy topping.
This peanut butter ganache recipe is made
just like our chocolate ganache, with just a few
minor modifications.
We added chopped pretzels as a coating. The
pretzels created a spark of salt and crunch (I
thought we needed more pretzel pieces but
both Kelli, in the kitchen, and Leslie, from
Production, said it was just right).
Ingredients
Vanilla Bean Baby Cake Mix or equivalent
4. Bring the cream to a boil. Remove from
the heat. In a medium bowl, pour the
hot cream over the chocolate and peanut
butter. Stir until melted. Let the ganache
cool until it reaches a desired thick
consistency. You can heat it or cool it as
needed to get a thick coating.
5. Frost the cupcakes. To get the pillowy
mounds of frosting, we use a round tip
on a pastry bag, not a star tip, to apply
the frosting.
6. Dip the frosted tops in the peanut
butter ganache. The ganache should be
cool enough so that you get a generous
coating of ganache on the cupcake
and so that it just barely starts to melt
the frosting. Sprinkle the frosted and
chocolate coated tops with pretzel pieces.
Chocolate Bavarian Cream pastry filling
Buttercream Frosting recipe
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup peanut butter
8 ounces dark chocolate wafers or
chocolate cut into pieces
25

28. Grandpa Grumpy
Cupcakes
Directions
1. Mix and bake cupcakes according to
package directions.
2. Clip a corner on the two-pound pack and
squeeze about 1/3 ounce through the top
of each baked cupcake.
3. You can use our vanilla buttercream
frosting mix, our basic buttercream
recipe from earlier in this book or a
recipe of your choice. Make the frosting
with butter, not shortening.
4. Use the ganache recipe at the beginning
of this section.
Grumpy Cupcakes are the creation of the Just
Baked bakery chain in Michigan. Our version
is made with a moist cream cake cupcake filled
with Bavarian cream and frosted with a buttercream frosting. Then the top of the cupcake is dipped in ganache made with gourmet
chocolate. The ganache melts the buttercream
just a bit to make pillowy mounds of chocolate
covered buttercream. There is also a version
made with ice cream in the “Ice Cream Filled
Cupcakes” section of this book.
Ingredients
Very Fudgy Baby Cake Mix or equivalent
Bavarian Cream pastry filling
Vanilla Buttercream frosting recipe
Chocoalte Ganache recipe
26
5. Frost the cupcakes. To get the pillowy
mounds of frosting, we use a round tip
on a pastry bag, not a star tip, to apply
the frosting.
6. Dip the frosted tops in the warm ganache. The ganache should be cool
enough so that you get a generous
coating of ganache on the cupcake and
so that it just barely starts to melt the
frosting.
Variation
You can make these cupcakes with ice cream
filling instead of Bavarian Cream if you’d
like. Use an ice cream cupcake tool. Use the
larger diameter fitting and cut a plug out of the
center of each cupcake. Use the same fitting
to cut vanilla ice cream plugs and insert them
into the cupcakes. Bake and frost the cupcakes
just as before.

29. Chocolate Covered
Caramel Apple Cupcakes
Imagine an apple flavored cupcake with an apple filling, a layer of caramel over the top and
then dipped in gourmet chocolate. We sprinkled some with chopped nuts, drizzled some
with white chocolate and covered others with
candy. You can use a premade caramel frosting, caramel buttercream, homemade caramel
or melted caramels or candies for the top layer
and before the chocolate dipping.
Ingredients
Vanilla Bean Baby Cake Mix or equivalent
1 teaspoon Apple flavor
Apple pastry filling or Apple Pie filling
Salted Caramel Frosting or Caramel Buttercream Frosting
Directions
1. Mix and bake cupcakes according to
package directions adding the apple flavor to the batter before baking.
2. Clip a corner on the two-pound pack and
squeeze about 1/3 ounce through the top
of each baked cupcake.
4. Use the ganache recipe at the beginning
of this section.
5. Dip the frosted tops in the ganache. The
ganache should be cool enough so that
you get a generous coating of ganache
on the cupcake and so that it just barely
starts to melt the frosting.
6. Dress the cupcakes as desired. Some suggestions are: chopped peanuts, chopped
salted pretzels, apple bark candy pieces,
or a drizzle of white chocolate. You can
dress the cupcakes with almost anything
that would go on a caramel apple. Get
creative!
3. Frost your cupcakes with our Sweet Sensations salted caramel frosting or a caramel buttercream frosting. You can either
pipe your frosting onto your cupcakes or
spread the frosting on with a knife. If you
spread it on, make it thick.
27

30. Other Gourmet Cupcakes
You can fill them with frosting or you can fill
them with a combination of frosting and pastry
filling. Most are made with only frosting but
it’s no more work to add pastry filling and we
really like pastry filling. (Pastry filling—that’s
the good stuff that your baker puts in filled
donuts, apple turnovers, and cream puffs. It
comes in cream fillings like Bavarian cream,
chocolate, and cream cheese and fruit fillings
like apple, raspberry, and lemon.)
Mini-Cupcake Sandwiches
How to Make Cupcake
Sandwiches
We’ve had a ball making cupcake sandwiches!
They’re easy, fun, and scrumptious—like these:
• Raspberry Cream Cupcake Sandwiches
• Lemon Pie Cupcake Sandwiches
• Chocolate Fudge Cupcake Sandwiches
You can make all these with a boxed cake mix
and frosting mix—incredible desserts that are
easy to make.
So how do you do it? It’s a very simple concept.
You take two cupcake tops (just the tops) and
make a sandwich with frosting and/or pastry
filling between the two.
But how do you make the tops? To make it
easy, use a box cake mix. Then scoop batter
into the depressions on a muffin top pan.
Instead of making muffin tops, you’re making
cupcake tops. You can “doctor-up” the cake
mix by adding colors and flavors—or maybe
raspberry bits like the ones shown on this page.
28
If you have a standard cupcake/muffin pan,
you can make mini cupcakes sandwiches.
They’re cute, easy, and not that mini—with the
two tops together, about the size of a standard
cupcake.
Spray the inside of a good nonstick muffin pan
with cooking spray or grease well and dust
with flour. Because the cakes will not come
to the top of the pan, they must release easily.
We’ve had no problems with good quality
muffin pans.
Load the prepared muffin pan with cake batter
but only to about 3/4 inch deep. We use a
medium ice cream scoop (one-inch) to put the
perfect amount of batter in each cavity and
make uniformly-sized cakes. Bake for about
9-10 minutes or until done.
Put the cakes onto a wire rack to cool. Finish
according to the directions for full sized
cupcake sandwiches.

31. Sticky Toffee Cupcakes
Step 1: Bake the cupcake tops. Mix the
batter per the package directions. Scoop batter
into each of the indentations on your muffin
top pan. We use a large ice cream scoop that
holds 1/4 cup to get just the right amount of
batter each time. (The slide action in the scoop
cleanly releases the batter.) Bake the tops
and put them on a wire rack to cool. Since
the tops are thinner than cupcakes, they bake
quicker than cupcakes—ten minutes in our
oven. Set the timer early and check them with
a toothpick.
You’ll need a muffin top pan. (Use this for
muffin tops too. You’ll make only the tops of
the muffins—the best part.)
Step 2: Assemble the cupcake
sandwiches. Match the cupcake tops up in
pairs. With the cupcake tops upside down,
squeeze a rim of frosting around the perimeter
of half the cupcake tops as shown in the
pictures to the right. If you are going to fill the
cupcakes with pastry filling, fill the interior of
the ring with pastry filling. If not, continue
filling the ring with frosting. Shake sprinkles
or other decorations on the exposed frosting.
Place a top on the filled cupcake, top up, to
complete the sandwich.
Our buttercream frosting mixes are perfect
for cupcake sandwiches but you can use your
favorite recipe. You can also choose from
many different pastry fillings and decorations.
Sticky toffee pudding is basically a dense cake
with a toffee topping. It’s scrumptious. And
it’s very versatile. We have found that we can
add everything from chocolate chips to bananas. We have used the banana recipe as a base
recipe and then substituted other goodies for
bananas. If the batter is too dry, adding milk
helps to bring it to the right consistency.
It follows that anything that can be made in a
cake pan should be able to be baked in a muffin
pan as cupcakes. That certainly works with
sticky toffee pudding. This means that you can
convert pretty much any sticky toffee pudding
recipes into cupcakes. To do this:
1. Line a muffin pan with paper liners filling each cup nearly full.
2. Bake at 350 degrees for 16 to 18 minutes
or until done.
3. When ready to serve, remove the paper
liner, place the cupcake on a dessert
plate, and place a spoonful of warm toffee sauce over the cake.
Our recipes will make 14 or 15 cupcakes.
Try five other sticky toffee pudding recipes that
can be turned into cupcakes!
• Zucchini
• Plum
• Peach or Mango
• Pineapple Coconut
• Candy Bar
29

32. Banana Sticky Toffee
Pudding Cupcakes
It always seems like we have extra bananas
that are becoming too ripe. Usually we put
them in zipper-type plastic bags and freeze
them—and then forget about them.
This is a great recipe for your ripe bananas. If
you use frozen ones, thaw them in the microwave before using them.
You will be tempted to leave the flavors out.
Don’t. The sauce is good with vanilla flavor; it
is phenomenal with butterscotch flavor. Caramel flavor, brown sugar flavor, and French
vanilla flavor are all good and each gives a
distinctly different tone to the sauce.
As in banana muffins, it’s hard to get enough
banana flavor with bananas alone. Add the
banana flavor.
The Pudding
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 cubes) butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
2/3 cup Butterscotch chips
2 teaspoons Banana flavor
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin
pan with paper liners.
1. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Set aside.
The Toffee Sauce
2. In the bowl of your stand-type mixer,
cream the butter and sugar together.
Beat in the eggs and then the bananas
and flavor.
This is not complicated to make. You will need
a candy thermometer. Just cook it until you
reach the desired temperature.
3. Add the flour mixture and beat until well
combined, scraping down the sides of the
bowl. Add the chips.
1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup (1/2 cube) salted butter
1 teaspoon Butterscotch flavor
1. In a large heavy saucepan, add the
cream, brown sugar, corn syrup, and
butter. Over medium heat, bring the
ingredients to a gentle boil stirring often.
Continue cooking until the temperature
reaches 230 degrees. You will need to
stir constantly as it approaches the targeted temperature. Set aside.
2. Once the sauce has started to cool, stir in
the flavor. Let the sauce cool completely.
If the sauce is too thick to spread, thin
with a little additional whipping cream.
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4. Scrape the batter into the prepared muffins tins filling each cup nearly full. Bake
for 16-18 minutes or until the cake tests
done with a toothpick stuck in the center.
Place cupcakes on a wire rack to cool.
How to Assemble Your
Cupcakes
When ready to serve, remove the paper liners
from the cooled cupcakes, place the cupcake on
a dessert plate, and place a spoonful of warm
toffee sauce over the cake.

33. Luscious Lingonberry
Cupcakes
Elki makes great sauces and jams—which we
sell. We took their recipe for lingonberry cake
and modified it to make these lingonberry
cupcakes.
Madalyn Luthy of Love at First Bite in Idaho
Falls decorated these for us. She put lingonberry jam on each cupcake, then piped on pink
buttercream frosting and topped them with red
balls of rolled fondant to look like berries. She
used Americolor Super Red Food Color Gel
for the color. To get the sugar to adhere, she
dipped them in water before rolling them in
granulated sugar.
We suspect that this recipe would also be good
with other berry jams such as loganberry or
bodacious berry.
Ingredients
3 cups cake or pastry flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup butter
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons Raspberry flavor
4 large eggs
1 cup Lingonberry jam
4-5 drops of Americolor Super Red food
color gel
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°.
1. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour
and baking powder and set aside.
2. With your stand-type mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.
Add vanilla and flavor.
3. Add the eggs one at a time and beat them
in.
4. Beat about one-third of the flour mixture
into the egg and sugar mixture. Add
about one-half of the jam and beat in.
Repeat with another third of the flour,
half of the jam and then the final third of
flour. Add some food color to make your
batter a dark pink or light red color.
5. Line a muffin pan with paper liners. Divide the batter between the cups.
6. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes for a standard
12 cup muffin pan or until a toothpick
inserted in the center of a cupcake comes
out clean. (You may use a jumbo muffin
pan for larger cupcakes or a mini cupcake pan for smaller ones. Jumbo cupcakes will take longer to bake and mini
cupcakes will take less time.) Remove
the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool. Frost
with butter cream frosting once completely cooled.
7. Spread some lingonberry jam on top of
each cooled cupcake. Make our basic
buttercream recipe from earlier in this
book or use your favorite buttercream
recipe. Add some red food coloring and
raspberry flavor (to taste) if you’d like.
Pipe the frosting onto each cupcake
using a star or round tip. Garnish with
fondant berries if desired.
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34. Easy Carrot Cake
Cupcakes with Cream
Cheese Frosting
This is an easy cake that is absolutely
scrumptious. You simply add three ingredients
to our Vanilla Bean cake mix. We served this
in the store as a sample to customers and they
loved it. Nearly everyone asked for the recipe.
Make this recipe as a cake or turn them into
cupcakes.
Ingredients
Vanilla Bean Baby Cake Mix or equivalent
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup grated carrots
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 cup nuts
1 four-ounce package of cream cheese (or
1/2 of an eight-ounce block), softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
A pinch of salt
1 tablespoon meringue powder
1 cup heavy whipping cream
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
1. Make the baby cakes as directed on
package adding the carrots, cinnamon
and nuts to the batter. Bake at 325 for
16 minutes or until done. Cool on a wire
rack.
2. Cream the granulated sugar with the
cream cheese. Add the other ingredients
and beat until light and fluffy. Frost
cooled cupcakes with a knife, or pipe
onto each cupcake with a star or round
tip.
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35. Maple Bacon Cupcakes
Directions
Bake cupcakes as directed.
1. Make a basic buttercream frosting with
maple flavor. If you choose to add bacon
flavor, omit the milk and add a quarter
cup chopped bacon pieces and two tablespoons bacon fat.
2. Cream shortening, butter, maple flavor,
and milk together.
I wasn’t sure about bacon cupcakes at first but
I must admit, they’re good. It’s no wonder-chocolate, bacon, and maple are a good,
balanced combination.
These are made with our Very Fudgy Baby
Cakes cake mix. The cake is denser than the
box cakes in the grocery store, a cream cake,
about half as dense as a pound cake.
You need a dense, moist cake with substance—
not to mention, chocolate pieces—to balance
with strong flavors of bacon and maple.
3. Add powdered sugar, meringue powder,
and salt. Beat at medium speed until it is
thoroughly mixed. Continue beating for
another minute or two, until creamy.
4. Fry bacon until crisp. Cut them into
chunks with kitchen shears. Put them in
a bowl and toss them with three tablespoons of brown sugar.
5. Using an ice cream scoop, place a dollop
of frosting on each cupcake. Shape the
frosting as you like. Alternatively, you
can pipe the frosting into swirls on the
tops of the cupcakes. Sprinkle the prepared bacon bits over the frosting.
Ingredients
Very Fudgy Baby Cake Mix or equivalent
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon Maple flavor
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 pound powdered sugar (a scant two
cups)
1 tablespoon meringue powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 lb bacon
33

36. Peanut Butter Cup
Cupcakes
Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/3 tablespoon vanilla or 1 teaspoon
Brown Sugar flavor
1/3 cup cream
1/8 teaspoon salt
Peanut Butter Frosting
1 8-ounce package of cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
5 cups powdered sugar
A scant 1 cup peanut butter
2 to 3 tablespoons milk
These are great cupcakes. They are made with
our Very Fudgy Baby Cakes cake mix. The
cake is denser than the box cakes in the grocery
store, a cream cake, about half as dense as a
pound cake. The dense, moist cake balances
well with the rich peanut butter frosting. We
have also provided you with two Peanut Butter
Frosting recipes to choose from. One makes
a lot more frosting and is made with cream
cheese. The other makes a smaller amount of
frosting and is made with heavy cream.
Ingredients
Very Fudgy Baby Cake Mix or equivalent
Fudge Ice Cream Topping
3/4 cup roasted, salted peanuts for garnish
(optional)
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (optional)
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Creamy Peanut Butter
Frosting
This is a great frosting for chocolate cakes
and cupcakes. We use a chunky frosting but a
smooth works also.
1. With an electric mixer, beat the butter
and peanut butter together until creamy.
Scrape the sides down with a spatula.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat
until smooth.
3. Use the peanuts or peanut butter cups as
garnish on top of the frosted cupcake.

37. Peanut Butter Frosting
This is a great frosting recipe. Use it to frost
a layer cake, brownies, or cupcakes. It works
well with either a yellow cake mix or chocolate
cake mix. If you use a yellow cake mix, consider throwing a handful of chopped peanuts
into the batter. You may use chunky or smooth
peanut butter.
This is a large recipe and makes enough frosting to fill and frost a layer cake. If you are going to use this frosting for cupcakes, brownies
or a single layer cake, you may want to cut it in
half.
Directions
1. Bake as directed on the package. Let
them cool on a wire rack.
2. Poke holes in the top of each cupcake
with a skewer. Drizzle ice cream topping
over the cupcakes. If the topping is too
thick to drizzle, heat it in the microwave
until warm, not hot.
3. Use a one-ounce ice cream scoop to drop
mounds of the peanut butter frosting on
the cupcakes or you can pipe the frosting
onto the cupcakes if you’d like.
1. Cream together cream cheese and butter
until light and fluffy.
4. Sprinkle chopped peanuts or peanut butter cups over the frosting.
2. Add the powdered sugar one cup at a
time and beat after each addition.
5. Serve these dessert cupcakes with a fork.
They are going to be gooey and good.
3. Add the peanut butter and beat until
light and fluffy.
4. Add milk until the frosting reaches a
spreadable consistency.
5. Spread the frosting over the cupcake.
6. Chop the peanuts or peanut butter cups
and sprinkle over the frosted cupcake.
Baker’s Note: We did notice that when testing
this recipe with a refrigerated peanut butter
that the frosting started to separate after it
set. Try using a consistent non-refrigerated
peanut butter or adding more powdered
sugar.
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38. What you’ll Need: A Buyer’s Guide
Meringue Powder
Meringue powder stabilizes whipped cream, so
it doesn’t melt so quickly. It puts a hard shell
on icings, so you can stack your cookies, and
it keeps your frosting from melting in a warm
room. It is essential for buttercream frosting
and royal icing, the hard icing used to decorate
cakes.
Premade Frostings
These premade frostings are great for cupcakes.
Dress up your cupcakes and other desserts with
these delicious frostings without the work of
making it from scratch. Some of them are mixes
and require water and butter and/or shortening to be added while others come ready-made.
Find the products and links here:
• Vanilla Cream Buttercream Mix
• Sweet Sensations Buttercream Frosting
Base
• Chocolate Buttercream Frosting Mix
• Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting Mix
• Original Cream Cheese Frosting Mix
• Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting Mix
• Caramel Whipped Cream Base
• Wilton Creamy White Buttercream Icing
Mix
• Sweet Sensations Salted Caramel Premium Glossy Frosting
• Sweet Sensations Chocolate Fudge Premium Glossy Frosting
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Ramstadt Breda Medium
Dark Cocoa
This cocoa is a terrific, Dutch-processed cocoa
imported from France with two times the cocoa butter. Used by the best bakers and pastry
chefs in Europe, its finer ground and richer
than most American cocoa powders but still
very smooth and complex.
We keep both this and Ramstadt Breda Rich
Dark Cocoa in our pantry. When we want an
intense rich chocolate experience, we reach
for the dark cocoa. When we want a smoother
chocolate taste, this is what we reach for. The
flavor is just as intense, it’s just different. Both
have more cocoa butter than the store brands,
and either will make a tremendous difference
in your baking.
Imported Dark Chocolate
Wafers
These dark chocolate wafers are what we
recommend for the chocolate ganache. You
can also use them for any baking, candies, and
sauces or to drizzle over cakes and desserts.
They are sweeter and smoother than most
semi-sweet baking chocolates and much nicer
for sauces, ganaches and delicate baked goods
than melted chips.

39. Flavors and Extracts
These Marsden and Bathe flavors and extracts
are the real deal. You don’t want to be caught
without some of these unique and high quality flavors. Choose from a huge selection and
make some of the best, most flavorful cupcakes
out there. See many of the options plus their
links here:
Pastry Fillings
These pastry fillings are a must have if you
want to make filled cupcakes. Your cupcakes
will be to-die-for with these professional pastry fillings. Don’t just use these in cupcakes
though, use them for donuts, pastries, crepes,
sweet rolls and pies as well. Find all of our
pastry fillings and their links here:
• Bavarian Cream
• Butterscotch
• Chocolate Bavarian Cream
• Cherry
• Cherry
• Caramel
• Apple
• Butter Rum
• Raspberry
• Banana
• Strawberry
• Pineapple—in store only
• Blueberry
• Orange
• Cream Cheese
• Vanilla
• Pineapple
• Root Beer
Pastry Bags
• Apple
If you want to make impressive looking cupcakes and frost them with something other
than a knife and a thin layer of frosting, pastry
bags are the way to go. Choose from 10”, 12”,
16” or 22” disposable bags. With a bag that
size, you can fill them with an entire batch of
frosting and store the leftovers right inside the
bag. Choose from these and other pastry bags
here:
• Raspberry
• Maple
• 10” Disposable Pastry Bags
• 22” Disposable Pastry Bags
• Reusable Cake Decorating Bags
• 12” Disposable Decorating Bags
• 16” Disposable Decorating Bags
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40. Sweet Sensations Gourmet
Chopped Barks
These barks can be used to decorate numerous
desserts and cupcakes. They add both flavor
and embellishment to your cupcakes, cakes,
cookies and any other dessert you see fit to use
them on. We used the Black Forest bark on our
Black Forest cupcakes and the Lemon Bark on
our Lemon Cream Cupcakes. They added the
perfect final touch. See those and other flavors
here:
• Black Forest
• Cherry
• Lemon
• Cinnamon Apple
• Strawberry Cheesecake
Cream Cake Mixes
These cake mixes are cream cake mixes, which
means they are denser and moister than the
typical store bought mixes which come out
light and airy. We like to use these mixes as
a base for almost all of our cake and cupcake
recipes. Typically, we use our Very Fudgy Baby
Cakes as a chocolate cake base and our Vanilla
Bean Baby Cakes as a vanilla cake base, but we
have a Raspberry Sour Cream Baby Cakes mix
as well. Find all of our baby cake mixes here:
• Very Fudgy Baby Cakes
• Vanilla Bean Baby Cakes
• Raspberry Sour Cream Baby Cakes
Candied Ginger
It’s amazing what little pieces of candied
ginger will bring to your cookies, cakes, and
desserts! You get a burst of flavor in every
piece, a different taste experience than adding
ground ginger. But what it really seems to do
is showcase the dominant flavor, make it more
pronounced and exciting.
We’re adding candied ginger to our favorite
cookies, cakes, and desserts. Consider adding
it in breads, scones, and muffins too. In our
cookies, we use 1/3 to 2/3’s cup in most recipes.
Americolor Food
Color Gels
These food colors come in many varieties. We
have electric colors which add more vibrancy
and brightness to your foods, or there are the
standard colors which range from Mint Green
to Peach and Gold to Fuchsia. With a collection
like this, get any color imaginable and see how
baking becomes colorful and exciting.
Cake Decorations
These cake decorations and sprinkles are great
for decorating cupcakes, especially peanut butter brownie sundaes in a cone. These sugars
and sprinkles can also be used for decorating
birthday cakes, frosted brownies and even
cookies. Find our huge selection of decorations
here:
• Americolor Decorating Sugars
• PPJimmies
Muffin Top Pan
Muffin top pans are used when you only want
the best part of the muffin or cupcake – the
top. We use this pan to make our cupcake
sandwiches, and they are just wonderful. If
you’re a fan of the dome like me, this pan is a
must have.
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41. Muffin and Cupcake Pans
Cupcake Corer
• 24 cup Professional Mini Muffin Pan
This ice cream tool is necessary when making
ice cream filled cupcakes. It’s so easy to use,
and your cupcakes will impress your friends
and family everywhere. Simply use the larger
diameter fitting and cut a plug out of each
baked cupcake. Use the same fitting to cut ice
cream plugs and insert them into the cupcakes.
Then cover the hole with frosting and you’re
set. It’s that easy!
• 6 cup Professional Jumbo Muffin Pan
Ice Cream Toppings
• Silicone Baking Cups
These ice cream toppings are unbelievable and
perfect for a variety of desserts. We used the
hot fudge on our peanut butter cup cupcakes
by poking holes in the cupcake and drizzling
the sauce over the top so it could sink in and
make the cupcake fudgy, moist and delicious.
Use any of these sauces to make your cupcakes
and desserts out of this world.
You can’t make cupcakes without the pan! If
you’re looking for professional, high-quality
cupcake and muffins pans, look no further. We
have a nice selection of pans and baking cups.
Find our products and links here:
• 12 cup Professional Muffin Pan
• Square Cupcake and Muffin Pan
Cupcake Paper Liners
We recommend using Red Glassine Paper Liners for cupcakes and muffins. They are a better
quality than those at the grocery store. We use
them in our test kitchen. The glassine paper
coating helps repel grease, and these pretty red
liners come in a pack of 500 cups for an unbelievable price! If you make a lot of cupcakes
and muffins, these are a must have. We also
have mini, standard and jumbo paper liners
that we sell in packs of 100, 75 and 48. Find
these products here:
• Red Glassine Paper Liners
• Mini Baking Cups
• Standard Baking Cups
• Jumbo Baking Cups
• Hot Fudge
• Caramel
• Caramel Pecan
Elki Lingonberry Jam
You’ll need this jam for the luscious lingonberry cupcakes recipe. Elki makes many amazing
jams, and they can be used in desserts to add
more flavor. In the case of our luscious lingonberry cupcakes, we mixed a half cup into the
batter and then used the rest to spread on top
of the baked cupcake before the frosting layer.
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