A Delicious Melody: Homemade Hostess Style Cupcakes

I don't know about you, but when I think of a good all american cupcake I think of a Hostess Cupcake. So, when I was thinking about a treat to make for my hubby to take to work for his birthday--I decided to try a go at homemade hostess style cupcakes! I think they turned out really well too! My hubby just took them in today for his group meeting (even though his birthday was last week), so I will have to let y'all know just how they went over! :) Aren't they adorable!? See the recipe below...

Hostess Style Cupcakes:

Chocolate Cupcakes (from scratch or box, I did Devil's Food from a box as a time saver.)

You can make regular sized cupcakes or mini for this as well. I did some of both for variety! :)

Cream Filling: (Steps 1-5 below)

1/3 c. Heavy Whipping Cream

1 stick Unsalted Butter, softened

Pinch (or about 1/8 t.) Kosher Salt

1/4 t. Vanilla Extract

1 c. Powdered Sugar

1-1/3 c. Marshmallow Creme

Ganache: (Steps 6-9 below)

3/4 c. Heavy Whipping Cream

~6 oz. Semisweet Chocolate (chips, chunks or pieces)

1 T. Unsalted Butter

1/2 t. Vanilla Extract

White Frosting: (Step 10 below)

2 c. Powdered Sugar

2 T. Butter, softened

4 T. Heavy Whipping Cream

Before you start be sure that you have all the ingredients you need. Bake and cool cupcakes before attempting to fill and frost. Once your cupcakes are cool you can start making the cream filling....

1. With a hand (or stand) mixer whip the heavy whipping cream until soft (to hard) peaks form.

2. Add the softened butter, salt and vanilla to the whipped cream and combine using the mixer.

3. Whip in the powdered sugar until combined.

Now it's time for the really creamy goodness of fluff.... Did I mention I love this stuff? Have you ever had a "fluffernutter"? No? Yeah, me neither...but I may just have to try one today....back to this recipe though...

4. Whip in the marshmallow creme until all creamy ingredients are one! You may want to give it a taste just to make sure it's ok. ;)

5. Spoon the cream filling into a pastry bag (and any tip will work...but I recommend something pretty big) and insert the tip into each cupcake to fill. Just fill until the cupcake is noticeably heavier but not overflowing. :) Don't worry about the hole int he top, we'll cover that with ganache in a few minutes. :)

6. Now it's time to make the ganache. Since it's for a frosting ganache the chocolate and whipping cream need to be equal parts. Anyway, using a double boiler melt the chocolate, whipping cream and butter together whisking every few seconds. Once the chocolate is melted remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. It will look about like this picture at this point...

7. Let the ganache cool to room temperature.

8. Then with a hand mixer whip it up to a frosting like consistency. This will give the ganache more volume and an easier consistency for frosting the cupcakes. Once you are done whipping the ganache, and it is to your desired consistency, give it a stir with your spatula. It'll look about like this.... yum.....

9. Smooth the frosting on the cupcakes with an angled spatula. Looking good so far, huh?

Just keep frosting away with the ganache until all your cupcakes are frosted.

10. Now you just have the final swizzle to do! Just whip up the butter, whipping cream and powdered sugar for this simple frosting. Then fill a piping bag and use a small tip (I used Wilton #2) to make the little swizzle on the tops of all your cupcakes. :) I was going to write words like "chemistry" and "electron" on the cupcakes, but I started with mini ones and didn't have enough room. You could certainly customize these for any holiday or party you'd like though! "Valentine", "Booooo"....the possiblities are endless. :) Have fun!