Josh's Cupcakes

Hi everyone!!! I hope ya'll had a fantastic Cinco de Mayo yesterday and I hope you are all home safe! Today I am driving to Brevard to meet my mom to celebrate Mother's Day!! She works on weekends so I had to take a day off work to spend the day with her. No complaints here! I made her the candles (if you missed that post, click here!) and rhubarb cupcakes with strawberry buttercream icing. My mom used to make rhubarb pie a lot when we were kids and it was so good!!!! Of course rhubarb always reminds me of my mom now so rhubarb cupcakes were the perfect idea! They are really really really good and I can't wait to share the recipe because I wan't ya'll to seriously make them!! But first, I must share the brownie cupcakes with cookie dough filling and turtle buttercream frosting I made for my brother's birthday!! Here they are!

Brownie Cupcakes

6 tablespoons of unsalted butter
11 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 large eggs
1 cup of sugar
3/4 cup of all-purpose flour
1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa
1/8 teaspoon of baking soda




1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-count muffin tin with cupcake liners,
and spray generously with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and 8 ounces of the chocolate chips.
Stir until smooth. Remove from heat, and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar. Add the flour, cocoa, and
baking soda.
4. Stir in the melted chocolate until combined. Stir in remaining 3 ounces of chocolate
chips.
5. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full with batter. Bake until a firm crust forms on the
cupcakes, about 20 minutes.
6. Place pan on wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan,
and continue to cool on a wire rack until cool to touch before icing.

Cookie Dough Filling

1/2 cup of unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons of water

1. Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl.
2.Stir in the flour, salt, vanilla and chips.
3. Add the water, one tablespoon at a time, until you have reached a cookie dough
consistency.



**After the cupcakes are thoroughly cooled, take a small sharp knife, insert into cupcake at an angle and cut a small cone into the center of the cupcake. Remove cone and eat! This leaves room for the cookie dough filling. In most cupcakes, you can cut excess off and add just the top back but with the brownie cupcakes it’s too hard to do, so I just eat the whole thing! :)

Turtle Buttercream Frosting

½ cup of solid vegetable shortening
½ cup of unsalted butter, softened
2 ounce of semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
4 cups of confectioner’s sugar
4 tablespoons of milk
1 cup of chopped pecans
½ cup of caramel (I used dulce de leche and it was delicious!)




1. In a large bowl, cream shortening and butter.
2. Add 1 ounce of the melted chocolate and vanilla.
3. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium. Scrape sides
and bottom often.
4. After all sugar is added, the mixture will be very dry. Add milk and beat on
medium until light and fluffy.
5. Add the rest of the melted chocolate, caramel and pecans and stir in until desired
look is achieved. Keep covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.



**After icing the cupcakes, I drizzled chocolate syrup and dulce de leche over top. YUM!!! The cupcakes were REALLY good but really rich. If you eat more than one at a time, you will feel a bit sick. Trust me. ;)