Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes with Salted Dulce de Leche Buttercream Frosting, Twix Bars and Heath Bar Candy

This is a super good recipe for a moist, rich, chocolate cupcake. Normally, all of the recipes on my blog are mine, tested and refined repeatedly. But as much as I like cupcakes, it is hard to find one that stays moist more than a day or two. This one does just because of the sheer amount of butter in it. It stays moist for at least 4-5 days. This recipe is an adaptation of one of the cupcakes in a Martha Stewart cookbook entitled “Cupcakes”. It is hard to change and tweet perfection. The frosting and toppings are all me, inspired by my daughter Georgia who is collaborating with me on the sweet recipes, and baking on this blog.

Makes 24 regular sized or 36 small cupcakes

Ingredients:

3 cups self rising flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 ¼ tsp salt

1 ½ cups unsalted butter (3 sticks) softened to room temperature

1 ¼ cup granulated sugar

1 ½ Tbs vanilla extract

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¾ cup hot water

4 large eggs

1 cup sour cream

Frosting Ingredients:

3 sticks softened butter

5 cups confectioners sugar

1/2 cup prepared dulce de leche or caramel sauce

milk to thin out frosting if necessary

½ teaspoon coarse salt

Topping Ingredients:

Twix bars

Hershey’s Heath Bar Crumbles

Directions/Cupcake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with paper liners. In a small bowl mix together the cocoa and the hot water until smooth. In a separate, larger bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Melt the butter for the cupcakes in a saucepan over medium low heat. Pour into mixing bowl and whip with a mixer for 4-5 minutes until cool. Add eggs one at a time, add vanilla and the cocoa that has been mixed with the hot water. Reduce speed to low. Add half the flour, add half the sour cream alternating until completely mixed.

Pour batter into the cupcake liners ¾ full. Bake about 20 minutes. The cupcakes can be left out at room temperature for a day or stored in airtight container in the refrigerator for longer.

Directions/Frosting:

Place the butter, some of the confectioners sugar and the dulce de leche in a standing mixer. You might want to drape a towel over it as you mix and add more sugar so that the sugar does not splatter all over your countertops. Add the confectioners sugar slowly. Stir in the salt. Pipe frosting onto cupcake.

Top with Twix bars that have been sliced in triangles with a knife. Sprinkle on Heath Bar crumbles. Serve. Once topped with frosting, they should be stored in the refrigerator. If serving later, add the candy toppings before serving so that the twix bars do not get soft.