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Bake Sale Cupcakes

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Bake Sale Cupcakes are perfect for, you guessed it, bake sales! These adorable cupcakes are crafted from a chocolate-cherry batter and then decorated with butter cream frosting and M&Ms; to look like miniature pies. When I first used this recipe at a bake sale, I sold out!

Ingredients

  • 1 box Duncan Hines chocolate cake mix
  • 1 1/3 cups water
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 21 oz. can of cherry pie filling
Frosting:
  • 4 oz. butter or margarine
  • 3 cups confectioners' sugar
  • 3-5 tablespoons milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder or more, according to preference.
  • 1 bag (32 oz) of M&Ms;, sorted into groups based on colour

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F
  2. Place baking cups in the cupcake pan; recipe makes 24 cupcakes total.
  3. Empty the cake mix into a large bowl, mixing in the eggs, water, and oil at a low speed until moistened.
  4. Beat at a medium speed for 2 minutes.
  5. Gently fold in the can of cherry pie filling.
  6. Pour batter into the baking cups, and bake for 19-22 minutes, adding 3-5 minutes to the baking time for a dark or coated pan. Remove the cupcakes when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.
  7. While the cupcakes are baking, prepare the frosting.
  8. For the frosting, place the butter in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, around 30 seconds.
  9. Stop the machine and add the confectioners' sugar, 3 tablespoons of milk, and the vanilla.
  10. Mix on low speed until the sugar is blended in, then add half the cocoa power and mix on low again until the colour of the frosting is uniform.
  11. Continue adding cocoa powder until the frosting is a light brown, the color baked pie crust would be.
  12. To decorate the cupcakes, take a quart-sized sealable plastic bag and fill it with1/2 the prepared frosting.
  13. Snip off a small corner at the bottom of the bag, then set it aside momentarily.
  14. Taking the remaining frosting, spread a thin layer of frosting on all of the cupcakes, just enough so that the M&Ms; will stick to the cupcake.
  15. Take the M&Ms; and place them on the cupcakes in their own color groups (eg. red represents cherry pie), leaving an edge for the frosting "pie crust".
  16. Then, pick up the preparing frosting bag and pipe a "crust" around the M&Ms;, moving the bag in a slight up-and-down motion to create a patterned crust, if so desired.
  17. Then, pipe 5 straight lines across the M&Ms;, all going the same way; turn the cupcake 90 degrees and pipe 5 more lines, crossing over the previously placed lines, to create a lattice pattern.
  18. Continue this decoration until all cupcakes are finished.