Hard Candy Cupcakes

My sister Tiffany couldn't wait for her birthday a few weeks ago so that she could choose her cupcakes. Being a Libra, I really thought it would take her ages to decide which cupakes she wanted, but within minutes of opening the book the decision was made.... hard candy cupcakes! Any of you who know Tiff will agree that a slightly wacky idea like hard candy cupcakes really suits her.

We decided on tropical fruit flavored Sparkles for the hard candy.

After glancing at the recipe I decided to go with my normal vanilla cupcake recipe and mix in the bits of candy. I had no idea that crushing the candy was going to be such a big challenge! I put all the candy in a ziplock bag and began hammering away. After the second or third blow the bag ripped open and I was left with a HUGE mess of splintered candy to clean up. The second time I put fewer pieces in the bag and gently hit each piece.

Mistake number two was that I made the bits of candy too big. While the cupcakes were in the oven the candy all sank to the bottom. I was a bit disappointed, but cheered up a great deal when I opened up the first cupcake and found that each one had a nice crunchy / chewey candy bottom. Better yet was the fruity flavor infused into the cake.

Rather than using the white shiny meringue frosting I changed the recipe slightly. I made the meringue frosting like normal (see my Smores post for the recipe) and added a tiny bit of unsalted butter and some icing sugar. The frosting lost its fluffiness and shine, but the flavor was rich and delicious.

Happy baking!