Easter Bakeathon: Cadbury Creme Egg Cupcakes

Good Friday is traditionally a day of fasting, so naturally I decided to make 3 different baked goods to bring into work (Hey, I'm from New Orleans where fasting and not eating meat means having massive crawfish boils every Friday in Lent.). Easter is known for its glorious candy, so I chose to highlight two of its most famous staples- Cadbury Creme Eggs and Peeps (Ok, it might be more infamous in the case of Peeps.). Thanks to some help from frequent pie collaborator Robin, I was able to complete my ambitious baking goals and get my coworkers their daily required amount of sugar (for the next year). We'll start with my never-ending quest to turn everything into a cupcake, which always ends with delightfully yummy results.


Cadbury Creme Egg Cupcakes
Idea and Frosting Adapted from My Baking Addiction
Cake Adapted from Anne Thornton
Servings: 24 cupcakes
Time: 45 minutes (plus cooling)

Our freezer holds important, nutritious things.

24 frozen mini Cadbury Creme Eggs
24 mini Cadbury Creme Eggs
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs, room temp
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups buttermilk, well-shaken
Buttercream Frosting (recipe follows)

All desserts are better with candy in the middle. Fact.

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl. Set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugars together in a stand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.
5. Mix in the melted chocolate and vanilla well.
6. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk at low speed (dry-> buttermilk-> dry-> buttermilk-> dry). Be sure to scrape down the sides after each cycle with a spatula. Be careful not to overmix.
7. Fill lined cupcake tins 2/3 full with batter. 
8. Place a FROZEN Cadbury cream egg in the middle then cover with batter.
9. Bake for 16-20 minutes or until the toothpick test comes back clean. Make sure you rotate halfway through.
10. Let cool in a wire rack then frost with white and yellow buttercream frosting to mimic an egg and garnish with another Cadbury Creme Egg.

I needed a quality chocolate cake to serve as a frosting and Cadbury Creme egg delivery vessel, so I went with my go-to (previously seen in Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes and the newly minted most viewed post ever, Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes). This is a very chocolatey cake with good bounce and moisture to it. Sadly, I over-baked these a little because of trickery from the inner Cadbury eggs. The cake surrounding the egg will be slightly undercooked or just a little extra moist thanks to the creme from the egg seeping out somewhat. This resulted in some false negative toothpick tests and probably 1-2 minutes of extra baking. Also, it's important that you use frozen Cadbury eggs, or they will just melt away into nothingness instead of maintaining the ever so important structural integrity required of candy-filled cupcakes. Despite the minor issue, this definitely is the cake to bring across all that wonderful Cadbury taste.

Buttercream Frosting

Servings: Enough to Frost 36 cupcakes

Time: 5 minutes.

4 sticks unsalted butter, softened

Pinch of sea salt

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 lbs powdered sugar, sifted

4-6 tbsp heavy cream

Yellow food coloring

You can pretend you made two totally different frostings. Surely that extra work burned off all the calories.

1. Cream the butter in a stand mixer until fluffy then add the salt. 
2. Slowly pour in the powdered sugar in 1 cup intervals until well blended.
3. Add the vanilla and heavy cream until you reach the desired consistency. Once there, beat at high speed until smooth and fluffy.
4. Set aside some of the frosting and add yellow food coloring to it.
5. The best thing to do is get a frosting tip with a wide circular opening (Sadly I only had small ones, and the decorating suffered.). Pipe a circle of white frosting around the edges then a tall circle of yellow frosting in the center.

If you squeeze too tightly, the frosting may explode. Also, I concentrate waaaay too hard. 

Robin and I debated between using cream cheese or buttercream frosting, but she eventually (rightly) won with her call for buttercream, which wouldn't overpower the cake like cream cheese would (despite the fact that cream cheese frosting is the greatest thing ever). The resulting buttercream frosting had a nice vanilla flavor and the perfect smoothness without being too heavy. If you want these Pinterest quality pretty (I'm not anticipating many repins on this one), you need to make sure to use a frosting tip with a large circular opening to get the necessary height and roundness to make a pretty egg. Luckily, you can cover up some of the frosting issues with the mini egg.

I'm proud of myself that the Cadbury eggs managed to survive for 2 days in my apartment.

These cupcakes were pretty much everything my little heart desired when I first realized it was possible to make a Cadbury Creme Egg cupcake (and then was sad when I discovered I was not the first to think of this). Having the inner and garnish eggs really hammers home the Creme Eggeration, while the frosting is a great homage to the inner treasure of the eggs. This was a perfect way to kick off our Easter Bakeaton, but stay tuned for our Easter Themed Sugar Cookies expertly decorated by Robin and S'mores Peeps (also known as the first time I didn't find Peeps to be completely disgusting).

Robin had her baking artist mojo working.

Peeps are decidedly more delicious when covered in chocolate and graham crackers.