{ Cotton Candy Cream Cupcakes }

My count on cupcakes for the month of April, so far, is 26 dozen.

I'm tired of cupcakes. Cupcakes are dumb.

Wait, no, what am I saying? Forgive me cupcakes. Please, please forgive me.

I'm just a little tired of you right now. Don't worry, it won't last long!

I've made cupcakes for a fundraiser (twice), I've made cupcakes for a party, I've made cupcakes for a friend, and lastly, I've made cupcakes for a baby shower. That's where these come in.

If you didn't guess already, my friend Julie is having a boy!

 With all the other baking I'd been doing, I decided to keep these simple and start with a box mix. From there, I added grocery store cotton candy (you can usually find it in the candy or chip aisle), some sprinkles, a little vanilla to the batter, filled with a lovely cream filling, and then topped with a cotton candy buttercream.

While a very sweet cupcake, these are Bean's new favorite. He really LOVES them.

You can top your cupcakes with a bit of Cotton Candy, but do not add it until just before serving or it will dry up and get all yicky (professional term). I decided to top mine with shiny, pearly Sixlet and some blue sugar crystals.

If I were making these for a different occasion, I would have done a plain buttercream tinted pink as well, and swirled on a bit of pink, then a bit of blue for a truer cotton candy look.

These are still pretty cupcakes though. You can see little bits of the cotton candy peeking out of the top of the cupcake, and when you bite in, you will definitely see it and your sprinkles.

Much fun!

While I am, in fact, quite tired of cupcakes, I have more ideas for them up my sleeve... as always!

Tina


Cotton Candy Cream Cupcakes
by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

For the cupcakes:
1 box White Cake Mix plus ingredients listed on back of box
1/2 cup cotton candy (more for garnish, if desired)
1 Tablespoon blue jimmie sprinkles (or blue and pink)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preaheat oven to 350 F.


Prepare cupcake pans with liners and set aside.

Mix up cake as directed on back of box. Add in vanilla. Pack 1/2 cup cotton candy in a measuring cup. Once measured, break it up and mix into the batter. Lastly, add the jimmies and beat lightly to avoid streaking.

Scoop batter into liners and bake according to box.

While the cupcakes are baking, start the cream filling.

Cream filling:

1 Cup Whole (Vitamin D) Milk

5 Tablespoons Flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 Cup Butter (not margarine) barely room temp

1 Cup Granulated Sugar (NOT powdered sugar)

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into the milk until smooth. Heat, stirring constantly, until very thick (thicker than pudding). Remove and allow to cool fully. You can sit the pan in an ice bath if you don’t want to wait.

In your mixer, beat butter and sugar together until fluffy. 

Once cool, in the flour/milk and beat until fully combined. Add in the vanilla. Beat until fluffy.

Finished it will look like a thick whipped cream.

When the cupcakes are cooled, pipe the cream filling into the cupcakes. (See here for instructions if you do not know how.)

Top with Cotton Candy Buttercream

Cotton Candy Buttercream:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 lb. (about 4 cups) confectioners’ sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 cup packed cotton candy

blue food coloring

With mixer, beat butter for 3 minutes. Slowly add powdered sugar and salt until well combined. Add cotton candy to heavy cream a little at a time. It will melt into the cream. Add heavy cream/cotton candy liquid to butter/sugar mixture. Beat on high for 4 minutes.  If too thick, add more cream 1/2 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency.

Pipe onto filled cupcakes. Top with sprinkles, sixlets, cotton candy, etc.

Buttercream adapted from Bakingdom
Cream filling recipe from Tasty Kitchen

 Linked up on Tip Junkie