Rolo Cupcakes

I love baking. Yes, it's true. I don't do it as often as I would like because, well, with 3 kids, I have enough dishes to do already and sometimes they like to help a leeetle too much. Okay, a lot much. But sometimes, I set aside my freaky cleanliness obsession and decide to bake. 

Once upon a time, I baked cupcakes weekly. I would think of a recipe, make it, and send the leftovers with my husband so he could share the goodness that is my cupcakes with his co-workers. He was new to the company, and I reallllly wanted people to like him. And me. Even thought I've never met them. I still wanted them to think he had like thee coolest wife. ever. period. So I'd bake away and those were the good ol' days.

                   

*Don't you just love my little hand model? I'd take a bowl of Rolo's with a side of chubby toddler hands any day...*

Moving on... Those were also the days where I fell in love with filled cupcakes. I can never go back to making just normal, unfilled cupcakes. They are seemingly unsatisfying. #imacupcakesnob 

Those were also the days when I made these Rolo cupcakes for some event, and one of my friends tasted these and said they were amazeballs. She used a different word to describe them, but I won't repeat that here.. Ha ha! 

Well, a few weeks ago, said friend brought over a little side table and some clothes for my girls, and I wanted to thank her, so I made her favorite, amazeballs cupcakes. But this time, I not only filled the center of the chocolate cupcake with Rolo's, but I drizzled some caramel happiness into the middle. Double the caramel, double the fun. :)

The cake part of these cupcakes were more like a brownie. I also love really chewy cupcakes. I'm not a light and fluffy cupcake kind of girl... I'm a sink-your-teeth-and-close-your-eyes-because-it's-so-dang-chewy kind of girl.

So, that's how I made these. Combine that with the caramel to the second power center, chocolate frosting, with a Rolo on top, and more caramel sauce, and these were some suuuuuuuper rich and fulfilling cupcakes.

Chocolate Rolo Cupcakes

I'm not really good at making up cake recipes, so I found the delish cupcake recipe over at Sally's Baking Addiction. You can find it here. However, I did double the recipe and it made enough for 12 cupcakes and tons of mini ones...

Fill the cupcakes with a little bit of batter.
Add a Rolo and then drizzle some caramel sauce on top of it.
Fill the rest of the cupcake liner (well, fill it until it's 2/3 full) with some more batter.

Bake according to the directions.

Once the cupcakes are cooled, pipe with chocolate frosting.
I don't really follow any frosting, I just dump ingredients together. It drives my husband crazy!
I do start with 1/2 stick of butter, a couple cups of powdered sugar, about 2 TBSP of cocoa powder, and a few TBSP of heavy cream. I whip all those together. If I want it more chocolatey, I add some more cocoa powder. Not a ton, just a little bit. Like a teaspoon or so. Whip some more. If it's too runny, I add some more powdered sugar to stiffen it up. If it's too stiff, I add a teeny bit of cream. A little cream will go a looooong way.

Whip like mad.

And then whip some more. That's what makes a good frosting.

Pipe onto the cupcakes, top with a Rolo, and drizzle some more caramel sauce on top. I just use whatevs caramel sauce is in the ice cream section at the store.

Now eat like a freak and enjoy.