We just celebrated Lily’s birthday. Like all parents, I can’t believe that she is already two years old. It seems like just yesterday that she was a newborn, sleeping in her carrier next to my desk in the Bramble Berry offices. It has been ridiculously fun to watch her personality emerge. She is the sweetest, most happy baby and makes Chris and I smile every day with her charming temperament.
To celebrate the occasion, I made butterscotch, butterscotch, butterscotch cupcakes. Butterscotch is a family favorite thanks to my dad (you can read about his love for butterscotch here). The cupcakes were a combination cake mix and homemade ingredients. They were easy to make (though were multiple steps), and most importantly, tasted amazing!
Jamisen was happy to help in the kitchen…especially if it meant licking the cupcake batter from the beaters! It’s fun to watch him become more interested in cooking and baking. He is becoming quite the little sous chef.
Jamisen and his grandpa sure love butterscotch! I plan on creating this butterscotch butterscotch cake for Father’s Day…be on the lookout for an updated blog post!
Baby cousin Alise joined the celebration. I love that Lily and Alise will grow up together. Below, my mom and Alise snuggle up together. The kids are remarkably good with baby Alise and Lily just loves that there’s a new baby to play with. Alise just started crawling this last weekend so that was fun to see her explore with confidence. She mostly crawls towards food.
Lily was a little confused by her candle, but thoroughly enjoyed the cupcake! Once she understood that in order to eat the cupcake, she had to actually blow out the candle, she was all-in!
We did try to get the kids to eat healthy food before cupcake time. Whenever I’m having lots of people over, I always make quiche. It’s fast and easy to prepare and best of all, can be prepped ahead of time and frozen.
And now, for the butterscotch cupcakes! This cupcake recipe is fantastic because it combines a cake mix with homemade ingredients. The cake mix saves time, but still full of flavor thanks to the addition of (wait for it, cream soda and jell-o pudding mix!). In addition to drizzling the top of the cupcakes with the homemade ganache, I placed a small spoonful in the center of the batter before baking. This made the cake extra moist and infused with butterscotch flavor. Yum!
Butterscotch Ganache (Recipe from Pastry Affair)
11 ounces (1 package) butterscotch chips
1 cup heavy cream
ONE: In a small saucepan on medium heat, melt the butterscotch chips into the heavy cream, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature before using.
1 box yellow cake mix
1 bottle butterscotch soda (if you can’t find butterscotch soda, use one can/one bottle of cream soda; you will not end up using it all)
1 small box sugar free/fat free butterscotch instant pudding mix
¾ cups butter, softened
6 Tbsp butterscotch sundae sauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
About 6 cups powdered sugar
THREE: Bake the cupcakes for approx. 14-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely.
FOUR: In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the softened butter, butterscotch sauce and vanilla until creamy. Gradually add the powdered sugar, about one cup at a time, until frosting is light and fluffy. I used a ziploc bag with the corner cut off for my frosting bag.
What is your favorite cake flavor?
- 11 ounces (1 package) butterscotch chips
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 box yellow cake mix|
- 1 bottle butterscotch soda (if you can’t find butterscotch soda, use one can/one bottle of cream soda)
- 1 small box sugar free/fat free butterscotch instant pudding mix
- ¾ cups butter, softened
- 6 Tbsp butterscotch sundae sauce
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- About 4 cups powdered sugar
- In a small saucepan on medium heat, melt the butterscotch chips into the heavy cream, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature before using.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 muffin tins with about 18 liners. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the cake mix and the soda. Beat with an electric mixer for about 2 minutes or until well combined. Stir in the butterscotch pudding mix. Evenly distribute the batter among the muffin tins, filling about ⅔” full. Add a spoonfull of the butterscotch ganache into the batter.
- Bake the cupcakes for approx. 14-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the softened butter, butterscotch sauce and vanilla until creamy. Gradually add the powdered sugar, about one cup at a time, until frosting is light and fluffy
- Pipe the frosting high onto the cooled cupcakes. Drizzle remaining ganache on top of the cupcakes. Serve immediately and enjoy!
Happy birthday Lily!! 🙂
Those look so yummy!! Is the amount of the sundae topping 3 tbs or 6 tbs? It’s different above and in the print card. 🙂
And how big is that soda bottle? 12 oz? Or do they only come in one size? Thanks!
Oh, and if you want another simple, but yummy, butterscotch recipe, try this (originally from Cake Mix Doctor book):
THE BEST BUTTERSCOTCH CAKE
1 yellow cake mix
1 box vanilla pudding
2 cups milk
1/2-1 bag Butterscotch chips
Chopped pecans (optional)
Prepare pudding mix with milk according to directions. Whisk or stir in the cake mix until mostly lump free. Spread into lightly greased 13×9 pan. Sprinkle with as many butterscotch chips as you like. I think the best amount is 1/2 bag of chips. 🙂
Sprinkle chopped nuts if desired. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. Try not to eat the whole thing in one sitting. 🙂
A couple of tips:
It’s little bit more moist than its supposed to be, since cake mix companies cut the size down to 15-16 oz, from 18.25 oz.. It’s not really a big problem, but you can add 2-3 additional Tbs of flour to make it better.
And this works perfect as a brownie too. Just use chocolate cake mix, chocolate pudding and chocolate chips (I like 1 bag or 2 cups stirred into batter). Yummy!!!
So glad you like the recipe Martina! It should be 6 tbs. of butterscotch sauce. Sorry about any confusion! I updated the post to be more clear. Also, I believe the soda bottle was 16 or 20 ounces. Just whatever a standard size bottle is. 🙂
Also, thanks so much for sharing that recipe! That looks yummy, I’ll have to try it out.
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
The bottle was HUGE – we had the leftovers sitting in the fridge for a few days since I’m “that Mom” that doesn’t let the kiddos have pop =) I used my best judgement to wet the mixture so probably used about 6 – 10 ounces total and added it slowly while mixing. Good question. I’m going to update the blog post right now with more data.
This cupcake will be my downfall….. 😉
It’s definitely decadent! Perfect for special occasions. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
It was SO good! I had been a full 18 days without any sugar at all and managed to hold myself to just one cupcake but I could have eaten the entire batch! =)
This is an amazing recipe! I would love to try it out! My Mom’s Birthday is June 5, so I have a really good reason to make these! Yummy! Thanks for sharing!
Doesn’t it look so yummy? I think your mom will love it! Tell her happy birthday from us. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
It was such a surprise to me when it didn’t use eggs or oil – and only used the jello pudding mix + pop but it really turned out so delicious and moist. Of course, shoving them half full of ganache helped too (ha ha).
Happy birthday to your Mom. You are so sweet to cook her a yummy treat. =)