Bake Sale Cupcakes are perfect for, you guessed it, bake sales! These adorable cupcakes are crafted from a chocolate-cherry batter and then decorated with butter cream frosting and M&Ms; to look like miniature pies. When I first used this recipe at a bake sale, I sold out!
- 1 box Duncan Hines chocolate cake mix
- 1 1/3 cups water
- 3 large eggs
- 1 21 oz. can of cherry pie filling
Frosting:
- 4 oz. butter or margarine
- 3 cups confectioners' sugar
- 3-5 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder or more, according to preference.
- 1 bag (32 oz) of M&Ms;, sorted into groups based on colour
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Place baking cups in the cupcake pan; recipe makes 24 cupcakes total.
- Empty the cake mix into a large bowl, mixing in the eggs, water, and oil at a low speed until moistened.
- Beat at a medium speed for 2 minutes.
- Gently fold in the can of cherry pie filling.
- Pour batter into the baking cups, and bake for 19-22 minutes, adding 3-5 minutes to the baking time for a dark or coated pan. Remove the cupcakes when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.
- While the cupcakes are baking, prepare the frosting.
- For the frosting, place the butter in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, around 30 seconds.
- Stop the machine and add the confectioners' sugar, 3 tablespoons of milk, and the vanilla.
- Mix on low speed until the sugar is blended in, then add half the cocoa power and mix on low again until the colour of the frosting is uniform.
- Continue adding cocoa powder until the frosting is a light brown, the color baked pie crust would be.
- To decorate the cupcakes, take a quart-sized sealable plastic bag and fill it with1/2 the prepared frosting.
- Snip off a small corner at the bottom of the bag, then set it aside momentarily.
- Taking the remaining frosting, spread a thin layer of frosting on all of the cupcakes, just enough so that the M&Ms; will stick to the cupcake.
- Take the M&Ms; and place them on the cupcakes in their own color groups (eg. red represents cherry pie), leaving an edge for the frosting "pie crust".
- Then, pick up the preparing frosting bag and pipe a "crust" around the M&Ms;, moving the bag in a slight up-and-down motion to create a patterned crust, if so desired.
- Then, pipe 5 straight lines across the M&Ms;, all going the same way; turn the cupcake 90 degrees and pipe 5 more lines, crossing over the previously placed lines, to create a lattice pattern.
- Continue this decoration until all cupcakes are finished.
