Creme filled chocolate snickers cupcakes

A while back, I was asked if I would be willing to make a dessert for the LOVE, INC. (Love in the name of Christ) dessert auction that was held on February 15.  I agreed to do it but wasn't sure what I would make.  I literally lost some sleep over trying to decide what to make.  The dessert needed to feed 8 people so that was a little more tricky coming up with something for only 8.  Trying to come up with a way to present my dessert was another thing to think about when deciding on what to make.  I found out that there were going to be a lot of cheese cakes at the auction so I wanted to avoid any thing like that.  Once I decided to make these I did sleep better.  :)  Jeff and I did not attend the auction so I wasn't sure how much my dessert went for nor who bought it.  A few days later, Ashli had been talking with some of her friends at the lunch table at school about this auction and come to find out one of her friends' parents bought these cupcakes.  How ironic.  I got a thank you in the mail the other day and they told me they brought $600.  WOW!  Enjoy!

 

Cupcakes:
3 cups flour
2 t. baking soda
6 T. cocoa
1 t. salt
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup salad oil
2 t. vanilla
2 T. vinegar
2 cups water

Sift together flour, baking soda, cocoa, salt and sugar.  Make three holes and put salad oil in first, vanilla in second and vinegar in third.  Pour 2 cups cold water over top of mixture and mix with fork.  Pour into greased muffin tins.  I used the Jumbo muffin pan.  Bake for 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees.  Cool.  Add filling & frost.  Decorate as desired.

Filling and Frosting:
2 lbs. powdered sugar (7 1/2 c.)
1 c. Crisco
4 egg whites
1 t. clear vanilla
1/4 t. butter flavoring
1/4 t. salt

Beat 4 minutes. 

I colored the frosting just to give some color to them.  I put some pearl beads on them, finely chopped chocolate chips, drizzled some caramel sauce over the top and added mini snickers bars chopped into 4 pieces.   I found the decorative paper holders a few years ago at Mahaska Drug and they have come in handy every once in awhile.