King's Cake Cupcakes

"Fun-sized Snickers? Who’s this fun for? Not me. I need six or seven of these babies in a row to start having fun." - Jeff Carlin

Fat Tuesday was yesterday and unfortunately I didn't have any of these minis left to get fat with. Maybe that quote could help explain why. Maybe if a total of 5 girls hadn't eaten them all Saturday I'd have some left but I might be the most guilty party of them all. And what's worse, you put Nala in danger. Just kidding, but what is worse is now I have to think of something to give up for Lent. I could probably think of some really great ones but I'm too selfish to give them up. For example, Diet Coke or SUGAR in it's entirety which would include... cupcakes.

Cupcakes are kind of my thing. I guess you could say I got started on this baking kick with cake. I don't even know how many flavors of cupcakes I've made by now but it's more than I can count. These ones were pretty amazing though and definitely a welcome break from my frequent chocolate overload. This cake batter is great too. It's such an easy way to doctor up a basic cake mix for a more made from scratch approach. Plus, it's a fun way of incorporating the King's Cake taste into cupcakes.

King's Cake Cupcakes

Yield ~50 mini cupcakes ~20-24 regular cupcakes

For Cake:

1 package golden butter cake mix

1 package vanilla pudding mix (3.9 oz)

1 cup sour cream

1 cup oil

1/2 cup water

2 tbs buttermilk powder

4 eggs

1 tbs vanilla

For cinnamon sugar layer:

1/2 tbs cinnamon

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tbs butter 

For frosting:

1/2 cup butter (room temperature)

2 cups powdered sugar

2 ounces cream cheese

1 tsp cinnamon

dash of cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together cake mix, pudding mix, and buttermilk powder so there are no clumps. Add in the sour cream, oil, water, eggs, and vanilla. Stir together until completely mixed. In a separate bowl melt the 1 tbs butter then add in the brown sugar and cinnamon to make the middle layer of the cupcake. Next fill cupcake liners about 1/3 of the way with batter, then sprinkle a layer of the cinnamon sugar layer as shown below, then fill up to about 2/3 of the way with more batter. Place them in the oven and bake for about 14 minutes. Check on them at this time to see if they're done, they may need a couple more minutes. Take them out and set to cool.

Meanwhile, take your butter and cream cheese and mix them together in a bowl. Next add in your powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time. After that, add in the cinnamon and any cream you may need to get your desired consistency. Then spread or pipe onto your cupcakes, whichever you prefer.

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