I don’t want you to think I’m getting lazy, but I’ve been a busy bee these days. So, when I realized I needed to make interesting and yummy cupcakes that my husband would love with only what I had on hand, I dug into my candy box.
To the rescue, Trader Joe’s English Toffee and Werther’s Original Chewy Caramels.
I made regular vanilla cupcakes, dropping a caramel in each cup of batter.
These plain-jane vanilla cupcakes had a caramel surprise in the center.
Once I frosted, I added chunks—and I do mean chunks—of the toffee.
Yes, that’s an adorable mini champagne candle.
Voilà, we had tasty cupcakes fit for a celebration!
Have leftover cake, icing or melted chocolate? Make cake balls!
For all of these, I used my small ice cream scoop, the one I usually use to scoop batter for mini cupcakes.
Carrot Cake Balls
The secret to cake balls is that they are really just crumbled cake mixed with frosting in most cases. I had leftover carrot cake and vanilla buttercream, these were the result.
Most cake balls have some sort of chocolate or candy coating, but mine went bare. If I’d planned ahead, I would have gotten some white chocolate to melt and dipped these. That may have made them over-the-top rich, but that just seems to be the deal with cake balls or pops.
Chocolate Balls
My first type of chocolate balls were really candy rather than cake. They were made from a mix of milk and dark chocolate melted with a little cream, scooped into balls when cooling and sprinkled with powdered sugar.
The second chocolate-based batch was basically chocolate icing and peanut butter, chilled and scooped, then dipped in chopped hazelnuts. I kept them in the freezer until I took them to the event (with ice packs), where they eventually reverted to mush. They made tasty mush, but I wouldn’t try this method again unless I were serving immediately.
Carrot Cake, Chocolate with Powdered Sugar, and Peanut Butter Chocolate with Hazelnuts
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