Samoa Cupcakes...

Field of Cakes (link on the side), has posted a recipe for Samoa cupcakes....she had promised them for a while, so I bought a couple of Girl Scout Samoa cookies a while back in anticipation (problem is I ate most of one box! LOL....and that was while I was on my diet....oops), anyways she finally posted it so I made them today.

Her recipe is much more complex then what I did today (check her recipe out by hitting Fields of Cake link on the side under "blogs I like"). She had a cookie crust, a caramel filling and then the rest of the elements I have....I don't like too much stuff going on with my cupcake...It makes it hard to eat...of course that's just my opinion....so I simplified, and this is what I did:

Chocolate Cake

(by Fields of Cake)

2 cups AP flour

3/4 cup cocoa (I used Hershey's Special Dark)

2 cups sugar (I used 1 cup white and 1 cup brown sugar)

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs (I used extra large)

1 cup hot coffee

1 cup buttermilk

1 Tbsp vanilla

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line 35 cupcake liners.

Sift dry together and give it a whisk. Mix wet ingredients together in a 4 cup measuring bowl. Add wet to dry and whisk until smooth (Not long). Add chocolate chips. Bakes approx 18 minutes.

Ganache glaze:

12 oz mixed chocolate chips

4 oz cream

1/2 tbsp butter

Over double boiler melt cream and chips together, add butter. Simple!

Coconut Buttercream:

(Fields of Cake, with some changes to it by muah)

1 pound unsalted room temp butter

1 small (3.4 oz pkg) white chocolate instant pudding mix

1 1/2 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup Malibu rum

1/4 cup cream of coconut

1 cup powdered sugar

Beat butter and pudding in stand mixer with paddle on med high for approx 5 minutes (stop and scrape bowl as needed) or until light and fluffy, reduce speed to low and add cream and rum to blend, then rebeat on med high for 5 minutes (Mine became curdly looking and decided to splatter all over the place, but I decided to ignore it, put a towel over the top of the mixer and beat it to death....and it came out beautiful), reduce speed to low and add cream of coconut and sugar....incorporate then beat some more.

ADDITIONALLY YOU NEED CARAMEL SAUCE (SEE SEVERAL POSTS DOWN I HAVE MY RECIPE) AND 3 BOXES OF SAMOA COOKIES.....

To assemble:

Make cuppies, cool. Then make glaze and dip cupcakes into glaze...let glaze set a bit (or pop cuppies in freezer for a few minutes) then add buttercream, drizzle caramel over top and add cookie!