Our cupcake contributor, Lauren of Crave. Indulge. Satisfy., is here with a decadent new recipe….

When I think of October there is one thing that comes to mind…CANDY, and lots of it!  This is the one month of the year where we have an excuse to keep our pantry stocked full of a variety of mini candy bars and not feel guilty right?  I mean you walk the aisles at the grocery store and come to the Halloween candy section and there is bag after bag after bag of candy just asking to be placed into your cart.  I’m not sure about you, but my go to candies always include chocolate, peanuts and peanut butter of some sorts.  So to get you in the Halloween spirit I’ve created a Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cupcake with Halloween Candy Bark on top, inspired by some of my favorite candy!

At first glance this cupcake may just appear to be a chocolate cake, but after one bite you will definitely be able to taste the addition of peanut butter in the cake as well!  Swirled with peanut butter buttercream on top, this cupcake tastes like a giant Reese Cup!  So all you chocolate and peanut butter lovers out there, this is one cupcake you are going to want to try!  The fun part is all about the presentation though and adding a giant piece of Halloween Candy Bark on top!  Loaded with Peanut M&Ms, Reese Pieces, Reese Cups and Butterfinger candies, this is one sweet cupcake that any candyholic is going to love!  The bright orange and yellow coated candies just scream fall.

These cupcakes would be a great addition to your Halloween dessert table or be even cuter packaged up to give away to the neighborhood kids as they trick-or-treat or send to school with your kids to give to their classmates.  I came across this absolutely adorable and genius way to package single cupcakes on Pinterest and just had to share it with you all.  All you need are clear plastic cups, plastic treat bags and ribbon.  This is one of the most creative ideas I’ve ever seen to package cupcakes individually.  You could even personalize them with a special tag for the recipients name or a message like “Trick-or-Treat” or “Happy Halloween”.

I hope you decide to give this recipe a try!  It is a real treat and I promise you won’t be disappointed!  Feel free to experiment with some of your favorite candies and create your own version of Halloween Candy Bark.  There are a million possibilities to create the ultimate candy combo, just browse through the candy isle and become inspired!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Halloween Candy Bark
recipe by Lauren Kapeluck
(makes 24 cupcakes)

For the Cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup creamy peanut butter (I used Jif)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pans with cupcake liners.
2. In medium bowl, combine dry ingredients: flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In bowl of stand mixer cream butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until fluffy.
4. Add eggs, one at a time mixing well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl.
5. Add vanilla and mix well.
6. Add dry ingredients and buttermilk alternating between dry and wet and scraping down the sides of the bowl and mixing until well combined.
7. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full with batter.
8. Bake for 20-21 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
9. Let cupcakes cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove to wire racks to finish cooling.
   10. Once cupcakes are completely cool frost with Peanut Butter Buttercream and garnish with Halloween Candy Bark.

For the Icing:

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter (I used Jif)
4 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. In bowl of stand mixer beat butter, peanut butter and vanilla until creamy.
2. Gradually add in confectioner’s sugar one cup at a time, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary.
3.  Add milk until you reach desired consistency.
4.  Continue to beat on medium until light and fluffy about 3 minutes.
5. Place icing in piping bag fitted with a large round tip and frost cupcakes.
6.  Garnish cupcakes with Halloween Candy Bark.

For the Halloween Candy Bark:

16 oz Chocolate Bark
1/2 cup Peanut M&Ms (yellow and orange), chopped
1/2 cup Reese Pieces
4 large Reese Cups, cut into 8 pieces like a pie
4 small Butterfinger candy bars, chopped

1. Line a baking sheet with wax paper.
2. Melt chocolate bark in microwave safe bowl for 1 minute. Continue to microwave at 15 second intervals until melted. Pour melted chocolate onto prepared baking sheet and spread evenly with spatula.
3. Sprinkle Peanut M&Ms, Reese Pieces, Reese Cups and Butterfinger candies on top.
4. Place candy bark into the refrigerator for 30 minutes to chill.
5. Break bark apart and garnish cupcakes.

For the Cupcake Packaging:

9 oz Solo clear plastic cups
clear treat bags (4 in x 2 in)
ribbon

1. Place cupcake in bottom of plastic cup.
2. Slide cup into plastic treat bag.
3. Gather the top of the treat bag and tie with your ribbon.
4. Add a name tag or special message if desired.

Hope you all enjoy these cupcake treats!  Oh by the way, you will have some Halloween Candy Bark left over after you garnish your cupcakes, so I highly recommend crumbling some over a bowl of vanilla ice cream, it’s pretty terrific!  Happy Halloween!

	Lauren Kapeluck Lauren is a monthly contributor for The Cake Blog. She is a self-taught baker and lover of all things sugar. Read more about Lauren on her bio page.

I absolutely love this time of year!  The crisp chill in the air and leaves turning every shade of golden.  Apples and pumpkins are at their prime and ready for picking.  Now that we live in Florida…. most days are sunny, bright and about 85 degrees.  Warm skies and palm trees do not make for a typical fall.  Don’t get me wrong.  I am not complaining about beautiful weather.  After spending several years in Illinois, I certainly do not miss the zero degree, grey-skied winters.  But I do miss sweaters and tall boots… the smell of leaves burning in the distance and the feeling of Autumn.

Last fall, we took advantage of our northern locale and hit the local orchard for some apple picking fun.  We came home with a bushel of fresh-from-the-tree apples and a box of freshly fried apple donuts.  Oh my goodness!  I’m not sure what was gone first.  Okay, truth be told…. we enjoyed apples for weeks but the donuts were gone fast!   This year, we can’t just gaunt over to the nearest apple orchard.  So I was thrilled to see the large displays of Honeycrisp Apples at the market.  Into my basket went many large, gorgeous apples with the intent of recreating those delicious apple donuts at home.  So that’s what I have for you today!  Baked and delicious.  Soft and tender on the inside with a serious cinnamon crunch on the outside.  Filled with cups of grated apple, cinnamon and nutmeg.  My recipe for Fresh Apple Donuts!

After several variations of less apple, more apple, apple juice, applesauce, apple chunks… frying verses baking… I finally narrowed it down to this.  A batter packed full of grated apple goodness with a serious cinnamon kick.  I see it this way.  If you’re going to the effort of making donuts at home, they should be noticeably different than something you can easily pick up at Dunkin.

My original plan for these donuts included a salted caramel glaze.  Which I still think would be absolutely incredible.  But somewhere along the way, I decided less was more.  I wanted this to be a recipe that you could easily make for breakfast.  Without waking up at 5am to get started.  So the end result is a recipe simple enough for your kids to help.  My two year old daughter assisted me from beginning to {almost} end.  Once the first batch came out of the oven, she was more interested in sampling than baking up the remaining batches.  But hey, can you blame her?

Funny thing about these apple donuts.  I’m not about to call them healthy because the words donut and healthy just aren’t meant to be together.  But, they are filled with a cup and a half of fresh apple (fiber and all) and unsweetened, natural apple sauce.  And they’re baked not fried.  So I guess if you stretch it… you might be able to say these are a little better than something you pick up at the store.  Can I call them healthy?  Probably not.  Can I call them delicious?  Absolutely!!

FRESH APPLE DONUTS
recipe by Carrie Sellman
(makes 20 to 22 donuts)

Ingredients

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1  1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1  1/2 T ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce, from jar
• 1  1/2 cup fresh apple, peeled and grated

For the Coating:

• unsweetened applesauce, from jar
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 T ground cinnamon
• dash of ground nutmeg

STEP 1 :  Preheat oven to 375.

STEP 2 :  In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg.

STEP 3 :  In another large bowl, stir together melted butter, eggs, sugar, buttermilk and applesauce.  Stir in fresh apple.

STEP 4 :  Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the egg mixture.  Stir with wooden spoon.  Add another 1/3 of flour mixture and stir.  Add remaining flour and stir just until combined.

STEP 5 :  Spoon batter into a large ziplock bag.  Seal and snip the corner off one end.  Squeeze batter into the cavities of a donut pan sprayed with non-stick baking spray. Fill each cavity 2/3 to 3/4 of the way full {to help donuts keep their pretty shape when baking, use a clean finger to gently even out the batter in each cavity and clean off the center knob of the pan}. Bake at 375 for 12 to 14 minutes, until the tops of donuts spring back slightly when touched.  Let cool 5 minutes before removing from pan.

STEP 6 :  For the outside coating, combine sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl.  Brush each donut with a light coating of applesauce.  Then dip into cinnamon sugar and toss to coat.  Let cool completely before eating, if possible.  A second dip into the cinnamon sugar creates an extra crunchy coating.   Best enjoyed the same day!

Package donuts in individual brown paper bags for a special treat at your next picnic or football tailgate.  They’d be equally delicious served with a cup of hot coffee or a cold beer.  Surprise the kids with apple donuts this Halloween!  Or simply celebrate an ordinary Autumn morning at home with this fresh taste of fall.  Perhaps I’ll try a salted caramel version in the future.  But for now, I hope you enjoy these simply delicious Fresh Apple Donuts!

	Carrie Sellman is the Founder & Editor of The Cake Blog. Her work has been published in BRIDES Magazine, The Bride and Bloom, on DIYnetwork.com, TLC’s Parentables and more. Read more about Carrie on her bio page.

Today’s post is a perfect combination of elegance and charm.  A dessert table featuring gorgeous cakes, tempting mini desserts and an abundance of style!  Emily of Lael Cakes, located in Brooklyn, created this display for The Cream Event NYC and goodness… did she go for fabulous or what?  Emily pulls together several of today’s hottest trends including chevron, gold and feathers into one spectacular display.  There’s a whole lot to love about this Chevron & Gold Dessert Table… so I’ll let the stunning photos take it from here!

Oh be still my heart!  I just had to start with this incredible chevron cake!  I love the mod twist on the traditional chevron pattern, paired up with sleek white tiers and a glitter pennant topper.  If you think that’s good, just wait until you see the rest of this display!

Emily of Lael Cakes shares the story behind her designs:

“I was more then thrilled to be part of The Cream Event NYC. The energy was contagious and inspired me to design a really innovative dessert table. I love combing modern and romantic aesthetics together. Our cakes varied from a spin on a chevron pattern to a rustic birch textured inspired cake to a gold cake with a black flower accent. Each were completely different but meshed well together through the color pallet and over all design theme. We also featured our most delicious vegan and gluten-free cupcakes with natural accents for decoration.”

As if we weren’t already weak at the knees, here comes along a second cake beauty.  Ruffled and romantic with a subtle geometric pattern on the second tier which ties nicely to the chevron cake.  Not to mention the small touches of gold and fabulous feathers!

Vegan and gluten-free cupcakes have never looked so good…

A big thank you to Emily of Lael Cakes for sharing her incredible Chevron & Gold Dessert Table with us today.  It is innovative, inspiring and simply stunning!

VENDORS & CREDITS
Cake : Lael Cakes
Photography : Our Labor of Love and Samm Blake
See more from The Cream Event :  Ruffled