Rocky Road Cupcakes

My niece spent the last 9 days and 10 nights with us and went home this morning; seriously depressing!!! :( I was under strict orders from her mom to not bring her home without cupcakes-- she said if I send her without cupcakes she won't open the door.... so I had two options, keep her forever or send her home with cupcakes. If it weren't for kidnapping being a crime I probably would have chosen to keep her forever. When she is around we seem to frequent Baskin Robbins and her favorite is always Rocky Road ice cream in a chocolate dipped cake cone... and there we have Rocky Road cupcakes!

I started with my favorite chocolate cupcake and added marshmallows and almonds for traditional Rocky Road cupcakes, just marshmallows for those who don't like nuts and added white chocolate chips to a few to experiment. 

When I scoop cupcakes into the cups I'm not exactly careful or clean about it which then leads to the extra work of having to wipe up my pans before they go in the oven. In order to avoid that mess, with runny batters I use this pancake pen-- and it works great! The only downside is I can't mix in my mix-ins until the batter is already in the cups. I added the mix-ins directly to the cups and then added batter, gave them a quick stir and then stuck them in the oven! 

 They came out delicious! Yumm, yumm, yumm!! I love the gooey melted marshmallows mixed with the moist chocolate cake! 

 I used a vanilla buttercream and garnished with almonds and marshmallows!

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Rocky Road Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

2 cups sugar 

1¾ cups all-purpose flour- sifted

¾ cup Hershey's cocoa

1½ tsp. baking soda

1½ tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

½ cup vegetable oil

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup boiling water

1-2 cups Mini marshmallows

1-2 cups Almonds, chopped or slivered

½- 1 cup White chocolate chips (if desired)

Frosting:

1 can of buttercream frosting

2-3 tbsp. heavy cream

1-2tsp. vanilla

4-6 cups powdered sugar- sifted

Directions

Cupcakes:

1.     Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.

2.     In the bowl of your stand mixer stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 

3.     Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla; beat on medium for 2 minutes (until well mixed).  

4.     Stir in boiling water until batter is mixed (it will be a runny consistency).

5.     In the cups divide marshmallows, almonds, and white chocolate chips (if desired).

6.     Divide batter between cups, filling them about ⅔ full.

7.     Place pans in oven and immediately turn oven down to 325º. Bake for 20-25 minutes, turning half way if your oven (like mine) doesn’t cook evenly.

Frosting:

1.     Add buttercream, vanilla and heavy cream to stand mixer.

2.     Beat on medium until well mixed.

3.     Add powder sugar until desired consistency.

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