Donut Cupcakes? But of course!

You might have seen this post over at Cute~Ella Carries. Or on the Cute~Ella is facebook page.  Here’s how I got there…

For my birthday I received this as a gift and I was so very excited! (That’s a pic from Amazon there for you.)

See, I had found a recipe for baked donuts that I thought would be just fabulous and the other possibilities? Oh man. I was so excited.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to put them to use when my friend’s birthday popped up on my calendar. We were headed to the Beirgarten and what goes better with German beer than chocolate cupcakes?

(Plus, I knew the birthday boy would LOVE the fun factor of having “Donuts” for his birthday!)

I won’t lie to you. I totally cheated and used a mix from a box. Whatever, I’m a busy girl. But I will also tell you that when making it, I use an extra 3 tablespoons of water and I think it makes it all the better.

So I mixed up the box mix according to the directions (plus 3 tbsp of water) and filled the pan about two-thirds of the way. This part was tricky because I’d never made them before and was just guessing about how much to put in, but I think it worked out just fine.

(For those of you following along at home, it was two scoops from my mini ice cream scoop that I also use for cookies.)

After they baked about 20 min and cooled a few minutes I flipped them out onto a cooling rack and let them sit for a bit. Once they were cool to the touch, I put them on a paper plate to make space for more.

I have a tiny kitchen, remember?

Once they were cooled enough to work with (I say it doesn’t have to be totally room temperature, but close so your frosting doesn’t melt) I used chocolate butter cream  frosting (from the can this time, I’m a busy girl) for some and white frosting for others.

I put the frosting in a  decorating bag (with no tip, just the coupler) and   I frosted the side that had been in the well (the bottom), not the top of it.

(Just a quick sweep around the top in a ring. Easypeasy.)

It didn’t have to be perfect because I was going to put some fun sprinkles on it anyway.

(You can also see that some of them weren’t totally hollow. That’s ok too. It’s just a little more cupcake for someone!)

Once that was on, I put my super fun sprinkles that I had found in FL in a shallow dish and carefully put the “Donut” frosting side down into the sprinkles, tapping it down gently.

I think this was a totally fun way to do something new to an old favorite. While I went with chocolate and chocolate/white, you could really do this with any flavor combination.

Next time I’m making some of my famous ginger pear or apple cinnamon muffins in it to see how they turn out!

So there you have it. My new take on an old favorite…and it’s so much fun to boot!

What flavor “Donut” cupcake would you think was the bees knees?