Humongous Pumpkin Cupcake

[mommy2-3boys]

Prep time: 20 min.
Baking time: 15-20 min.
Decoration time: 25 min.
Difficulty: Moderate

What you'll need:
2 bags M&M’S® Brand Milk Chocolate Candies for Halloween
1 bag TWIX® Brand Caramel Cookie Bars Minis
1 18.25-oz. box Devil’s food cake mix
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup oil
2 cans vanilla frosting
Orange food coloring
3 12-cup cupcake pans
26 paper cupcake liners
1 18-inch cake circle, firm cardboard or platter
Spatula

What to do:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the cupcake cups with the paper cupcake liners.
Beat the cake mix with the eggs, buttermilk and oil until blended. Roughly chop 2 cups (approximately 18) unwrapped TWIX® Brand Caramel Cookie Bars Minis and fold them into the batter. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake pans.
Bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven, transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely.
Tint the vanilla frosting with the orange food coloring. Line the cupcakes snuggly into a large pumpkin shape on the cake circle or platter. Follow this pattern—one row of 4 cupcakes, one row of 5, one row of 6, another of 5, another of 4. This leaves 2 cupcakes to be placed at the pumpkin’s top for a stem (use the photo as a guide).
Spread orange frosting over the cupcakes, covering them completely so they look like one big cake. Use black M&M’S® Brand Milk Chocolate Candies for Halloween to outline the pumpkin, and to make the eyes, mouth and nose. Fill in any remaining area of the pumpkin with orange M&M’S® Brand Milk Chocolate Candies for Halloween.
Tip:There are several ways to get similar results. You can frost each cupcake individually with orange icing. Place the cupcakes in a pumpkin shape and then use black M&M’S® Brand Milk Chocolate Candies for Halloween to create jack-o-lantern facial features. You can randomly add orange M&M’S® Brand Milk Chocolate Candies for Halloween

Finally, you can always use the top of any round cake layer cake as the pumpkin. Frost both the sides and top of the cake. Arrange black M&M’S® Brand Milk Chocolate Candies for Halloween to highlight the jack-o-lantern facial features, and then arrange orange M&M’S® Brand Milk Chocolate Candies for Halloween randomly over the rest of the cake to complete the face.


Makes 26 cupcakes.