Snickers Cupcakes (Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel Frosting and a Snickers Center)

While you're busy studying for finals, why not take a break and bake some cupcakes... haha, even I can't do that.  And I make time in my life to bake for pretty much everything, but with Microeconomics and Computer Science for Business finals coming up, this is a flashback recipe.  My friend, Rachel (the photographer of this photo!) and I actually developed this recipe while we were living in France.  We were craving some good American pastries, not frilly and pretentious, but some messy, gooey treats... and what is more American than Snickers? Plus, the French notoriously hate peanut butter, so we had no competition to eat them :)

Snickers Cupcakes

• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 1/3 cup espresso
• 1/2 cup (or 1 stick) unsalted butter
• 2 oz dark chocolate, melted
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 3 Snickers bars roughly chopped

1.  Preheat oven to 350 and line a muffin tin with cupcake wrappers
2. Sift together cocoa, flour, baking soda, and salt
3. Whisk together the two sugars and the egg, then add the milk, espresso, butter, and chocolate, and whisk until uniform
4. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until a smooth batter forms
5. Fold in the sour cream
6. Fill the cupcake liners 2/3 of the way up, place a snickers chunk into the middle
7. Bake for 15 minutes, pull out and let cool
8. Top with Salted Caramel Frosting, recipe below, and then add more Snickers on top!

Salted Caramel Frosting

1.25 sticks unsalted butter

3/4 package confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream, plus more if needed

1 tablespoon vanilla bean pase

1/2 tsp fleur de sel

1. Brown butter over medium high heat until fragrant and nutty
2. Let it cool
3. Beat all of the ingredients except the cream
4. Once smooth add the cream in a slow stream until frosting becomes light and fluffy