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Welcome to Thrifty Thursday! If you would like to participate, please see the end of this post for instructions :)
This week I attempted to make my own Hostess cream filled cupcakes. We have four kids, two of which take a sack lunch several days a week and my husband takes one just about every day. We can spend a lot on snack cakes to go in those lunches.
I have about 6 boxes of cake mixes in the pantry. Every time it goes on sale for less than a dollar I buy some. I know, I know, I should be baking from scratch, but cake mixes are really great in a pinch when you don’t have time to bake from scratch.
I baked up a batch of Devil’s Food cupcakes and let them cool. I don’t have a pastry bag with that lovely attachment for injecting cream, so I poked holes in the cakes with the end of a wooden spoon. I should have poked deeper, and next time I will, as I didn’t get as much cream in the cupcakes as I wanted, but was afraid of going through the bottom.
Next I made the cream filling (below) and spooned it into a zipper sandwich bag. I snipped off a corner and piped the creamy goodness into the holes of my cupcakes. Then I made the glaze (below) and dipped each filled cupcake in the glaze. Lastly I took the reserved cream for piping and added those fun swirls to the top :)
These were delicious, I mean REALLY yummy! However, the frosting didn’t stay firm for the school lunch trip it made, it was all stuck to the bag. UGH. So next time I will just fill the cupcakes and send them unfrosted. I loved the filling and the frosting in the recipes below, but Dorie Greenspan has one on the Chocolate Armagnac Cake that hardened very nicely, I may just try that next time. Though I am wondering if it’s because of the bittersweet chocolate that it sets up and stays that way?
I also found a recipe at Baking Bites that I may try for the cream filling. Marshmallow Fluff, while convenient, does have preservatives etc, so I’d like to try the from scratch cream filling recipe. :)
Cream Filling and Frosting
Found on Food and Wine
FILLING
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
3/4 cup Marshmallow Fluff
1 1/2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon heavy cream
1/4 cup heavy cream
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
MAKE THE FILLING: In a medium bowl, beat the butter with the confectioners’ sugar, Marshmallow Fluff and 1 1/2 tablespoons of the heavy cream at medium speed until fluffy. Transfer all but 1/2 cup of the filling to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4-inch plain round tip. Beat the remaining 1 teaspoon of cream into the remaining 1/2 cup of filling and reserve.
Line a large baking sheet with wax paper. Insert the tip of the pastry bag about 1/2 inch deep into the bottom of each cupcake; squeeze lightly to fill with cream. Set the cupcakes on the sheet.
MAKE THE FROSTING: Heat the cream in a small saucepan until steaming. Add the chocolate and let stand for 5 minutes. Add the butter and stir until smooth. Spread the top of each cupcake with the frosting. Spoon the reserved filling into a pastry bag fitted with a very small plain tip and pipe decorative swirls on each cupcake. Refrigerate the cupcakes for at least 10 minutes to set the frosting.
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Love the cupcakes!! I love them frozen:)
They look so good and I bet they taste better than Hostess!
These look too cute!
Those look fabulous!
Thanks ladies! They were SOOOOOO good. I am going to use some other flavored cake mixes. Until I find a good glaze that won’t melt in a lunch bag they will have to go unfrosted.
I’m also adding a Thrifty Thursday link to today’s post from Old Fashioned Tips – they have homemade cleaning supplies :) See Mr. Linky at the end of this post for the link!
you know when i have kids i think the only way i’m going to be able to feed them sweets is when i make them myself. they’d never know the difference b/w these and hostess. except the lack of high fructose corn syrup…
When I would give my kids cupcakes with icing on them for school lunches. I would put them in a small rubbermaid or tupperware container. The icing stayed on better then putting it in a bagging.
The cupcakes look fantastic.
I want cupcakes now!!! Those look amazing. Bet they taste better than amazing!
I have found that if I let the icing air dry until “almost stale” it stays better in lunches. Also, save the little plastic cups that the cupcake wrappers come in. They are the perfect size to put a cupcake in the lunchbox.
They look like the real ones, very cute! I bet you had fun making them!
Those look delicious. I loved hostess chocolate cupcakes when I was a kid.
Yum, Yum!!
Wow. Homemade hostess cupcakes. I’m impressed. My own attempt to make a homemade treat wasn’t near as frugal as I thought it would be. I made home-made ice cream; which is pretty cheap to make–but then I went and made pistashio ice cream with cream and that killed my budget. I hate to call it a failure (because it tasted so good), but I certainly didn’t save any money doing it.
These look good Amanda. This week I added frugal ideas for homemade granola.
What a clever and nice mom you are. They look absolutely perfect.
I remembered two weeks in a row! that’s a record.
Love your blog, too.
How pretty! They look great.
I remembered to post this week!
Bravo…you get a standing ovation. These look absolutely perfect and I be they taste that way too. I am with Maria…I love these when they are frozen. And just keep in mind there is nothing wrong with using a cake mix, there is nothing wrong with taking help from the store.
Wow those look good. We go through a ton a packaged snack here. What a great idea for bag lunches…
Cute cupcake photos. I like the idea of sending the cupcakes on a school trip unfrosted. It would almost be like it’s an inside-out cupcake.
They look great just like the Hostess (?) ones. Love the filling.
Oh, and I but cake & brownie mixes whenever they go on sale too! Nice to have in the panty for whenever. Plus you add your own spin on it and it's just about from scratch!
~ingrid
for the frosting you could use the candy coating…it firms up and doesn’t melt easy and comes in white, dark or milk chocolate…you could add flavorings to the white if you want…and still use the decoration on top…
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Hello if you want another way to poke holes take a small knife and cut small cones after you have the cones cut the tips of them off to make a ” plug”. Also for your frosting melt chocolate and put some marshmallow fluff (not a lot ) but just to thicken it up and dip the top of the cupcakes into it then no messy frosting !!
Thanks for sharing those tips!