Fauxstess Cupcakes

Who doesn’t remember the filled Hostess cupcakes of our youth? They’re super easy to make from scratch and more imporantly, you can personalize them for fun birthday parties!

ingredients:
cupcake ingredients:
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter
1-3/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate milk

filling ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 Tablespoons heavy cream

ganache ingredients:
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

Start with the cupcakes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cupcake pan with liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla.

Alternately add the milk with the dry ingredients until combined.

Spoon the batter into prepped liners, bake 15-17 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

While the cupcakes are cooling, start the filling. In the bowl of an electric mixer on low, combine the butter and the sugar. Add the vanilla and the heavy cream. Beat on high for 15 seconds until nice and fluffy.

Some people just pipe the filling right into the cupcakes, I prefer to hollow out the centers to avoid oozing.

Once the centers are hollowed out, add the filling. You can pipe it or just spoon it in. There will be leftover filling, you will use this later to make your fancy swirls!

Almost done, time to make the ganache! In a saucepan over low-medium heat add the chocolate chips, heavy cream and vanilla. Watch carefully and when it starts to melt, start stirring. Keep on stirring until it magically turns into a glossy beautiful ganache. Let cool slightly.

Sometimes I add cake back on top to cover the filling but you don’t have to. Spoon the ganache over the tops of the filled cupcakes. Let set.

Now the fun! Put the cream filling in a piping bag. I prefer a 18″ piping bag and a #5 tip.

Slowly but with lots of confidence, pipe swirls over the top of the cupcake. A ‘real’ Hostess cupcake has 8 swirls but go with what you like. Or…

…personalize it! My friend Mel was having a birthday so I made these for him and instead of the swirls, I swirled out his name in cursive! Obviously the shorter the name the better this looks.

Fun and delicious, these cupcakes make great party treats especially when customized!