Cupcakes-Rolo Cupcakes

 I wanted to make birthday cupcakes for a friend.  She had really liked my rolo cookie recipe from my 25 Days of Christmas cookies, so I decided to try making rolo cupcakes for her.  They tasted great but I had a couple of mishaps with the caramel.

Rolo Cupcakes

(somehow I don't have a picture of these which is ironic because they ended up being really pretty but it looks like my phone ate them)

Ingredients:

Cake
1 box Chocolate cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
1c buttermilk
4 eggs
1/3c vegetable oil (or however much it says on the box)

Frosting
1pkg (8oz) cream cheese, softened
1c (1stick; 8tbs) butter, softened
1tsp vanilla
1c confectioner's sugar
1c hazelnut spread (Nutella)
~24 rolo candies to top

Caramel
1c sugar
6tbs butter
1/3c heavy cream

Directions:

1.  Combine cake mix, buttermilk, eggs, and oil and mix until integrated on low speed, then beat on med-high for 2min.
2. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake @ 350F for 10min, then turn down to 325F until done (about 7min more).
3. For the frosting, beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until fluffy then add hazelnut spread and sugar.  If the frosting is too soft you can put it in the freezer for 10min.
4. For the caramel, melt butter in a small pot on med-low heat and add the sugar.  Stir continuously as the sugar melts to keep it from burning.
5. Once the mixture thickens and turns dark amber, remove from heat and slowly add the heavy cream while wisking continuously.
6. Once cool, cut a cone piece out of the middle of the cupcakes for the filling.  Do this by cutting a circle out of the top of the cupcake that meets at a point in the middle of the cupcake and then cut the point off, leaving an empty pocket in the middle of the cupcake for filling.
7.  Fill the cupcake with caramel and frost.  Garnish with left over caramel and rolo candies.
Yield 2 dozen


Notes:
-The first time I tried to make the caramel I heated the sugar without the butter like the original recipe says.  It burned.  Which I was afraid it would do because I've always combined the butter and sugar before heating when making caramel.
-My second attempt at the caramel I heated the sugar and butter together and it was going pretty well until it seized up on me.  I couldn't figure out what I did wrong until I tried adding the cream.  I had over heated the caramel and once I add the cream I basically made toffee in caramel soup.  Delicious but made the insides of the cupcakes crunchy
-I was really afraid of burning the cream since the caramel was really hot but adding the caramel to the cream to temper it just hardened it into a ball.  I ended up adding the cream slowly to the caramel while stirring and it did fine.


The Verdict:
Awesome, even with the crunchy caramel.  Definitely worth another try.  Very rich though, couldn't eat more than 1 at a time.


Original Recipe from: Your Cup of Cake