Many Mini Cupcakes And Batches For Later

I’m definitely on a cupcake kick lately. I get excited now just thinking about the different types of unique cupcakes that I can put together. I’ve always been onboard with the cupcake craze but I’ve decided that I prefer mini cupcakes to the regular sized ones.

That way I get to eat more cupcakes for the same amount of calories. Plus they are just cute. I’ve stocked up on mini cupcake wrappers to prepare for my baking adventures. I also found a little trick. The mini cupcake pan that I have bakes 24 cupcakes at a time. The standard sized cake mix box or recipe makes 72 cupcakes.

I make a batch of batter, fill the pan to make 24 cupcakes, and freeze the remaining batter in two batches. That way I can just defrost a container, add a couple unique ingredients, and bake a new batch later. I found a recipe for a gingerbread cupcake with champagne frosting. I didn’t have most of the ingredients on hand so I got creative.

I came up with a spicy chocolate cupcake with a marshmallow merlot buttercream. The frosting was amazing! The dry merlot flavor paired with the sweet frosting was surprisingly good. I’m definitely going to try it on other cupcake flavors in the future. No, merlotion isn’t a real word but it works in this case!

Merlotion Explosion Cupcakes

• 1 box devil’s food cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/3 cup water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 – 2 pinches cayenne pepper
• 1 cup prepared vanilla frosting
• 3/4 cup marshmallow fluff
• 2 – 3 Tbsp merlot wine

Preheat oven to 325 degrees if you are making mini cupcakes. If you are making regular sized cupcakes or a full sized cake, preheat to 350. Place cupcake wrappers in the pan. Mix the cake mix with the eggs, water, oil, cinnamon, and pepper (to taste). Fill each cupcake wrapper about 2/3 full with batter.

Bake the mini cupcakes at 325 degrees for 18 minutes, or follow the directions on the box for other sizes. Take the cupcakes out and let them cool. Meanwhile mix the frosting, fluff and merlot together for the icing. The frosting turned out a lovely shade of pink. I filled pastry bag and used that to ice my cupcakes, but feel free to ice them by hand, old school style. Sprinkle with red sugar or decoration of choice.

You could also make these lower fat by substituting applesauce for the oil and egg substitute for the eggs. I just went with the “real” version since it was my cheat day. The Kid loved the cupcakes and didn’t even notice that the icing had wine.

Now I just need to decide the next cupcake flavor. I’ve got two batches frozen and waiting for Saturday along with cute cupcake wrappers! Any ideas? I’m thinking something involving cookie dough.