Homemade Hostess Cupcakes

Who doesn't love a good old Hostess cupcake? Chocolaty icing, yummy cream filling and a decadent cupcake...except the last time I had one it wasn't quite the cupcake I remembered and loved as a kid. So in turn I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands and try my hand at my own version of the cupcake. To start off I researched a bunch of recipes for Hostess Cupcakes until I came up with what I thought was the perfect recipe. I decided that I wanted a very moist cupcake and opted to go with my favorite chocolate cake recipe - Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake. The cake choice was perfect, it got thumbs up all around, but then again that may be due to the cream filling, because really what's a Hostess Cupcake without the cream filling?

The cream filling is a mixture of marshmallow creme, sugar and butter. I found a bunch of other recipes that involved making a meringue but I dont think that's necessary, the marshmallow creme recipe made for a amazingly yummy filling. 

Homemade Hostess Cupcakes

Yield: 24 cupcakes

Prep Time: 40 minutes     I     Bake Time: 18 minutes

Ingredients:

For the Cupcakes:

• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup Hersheys cocoa
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup hot water
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Filling:

• 4 tablespoons salted butter (the original recipe called for unsalted but I prefer salted butter)
• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/4 marshmallow creme

For the Ganache Topping

• 6 tablespoons salted butter
• 1 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 

Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl or in your stand mixer and mix together thoroughly. Add in all of the wet ingredients except for the water and mix until well blended. 

Finally, add in the hot water and mix until the ingredients are fully incorporated. The batter will be very loose, it's okay, it makes for a very moist cupcake. As a side note this recipe calls for boiling water, I just leave my tap running high on hot for a few minutes and use that, there's no need to actually boil a cup of water.

Scoop the batter into your lined and greased cupcake pan and bake for 18 minutes. 

In the meantime prepare your filling. A big, big help here was spraying everything the marshmallow creme was going to touch with cooking spray. The creme didn't stick to anything and was so easy to work with.

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix well using a rubber spatula. Set the filling aside and then prepare the ganache. For the ganache melt the chocolate chips, corn syrup and butter in a microwave safe bowl in thirty second increments until fully melted. Once it is glossy add the vanilla and mix well.

Now it's time to fill the cupcakes. This is what my kitchen looked like when I was all ready to go...

Use a piping bag fitted with a tip with a large opening. When filling the cupcakes be sure that you don't overfill them, this is an example of what you don't want them to look like. If you do overfill them, which you probably will because I did too, just use a knife and remove any excess. 

What you want them to look like once they are filled is something like this... A nice amount of filling even with the top of the cupcake. This way when you coat them with the icing you will have an even layer on top. 

After the cupcakes are filled dip the tops into the ganache to get a nice even covering on top of the cupcake. The ganache will take about a half hour or so to firm up, even though it will look like it's not going to. For the signature swirl design on top I had a little extra vanilla frosting in my fridge so I put it into a sandwich baggie, cut a teeny tiny hole in one corner and used that to pipe the design. If you don't have frosting you can also mix a little milk with confectioners sugar to make a thick paste and then use a baggie to fill it too.

And that's it! Delicious, moist homemade Hostess Cupcakes. You really can't beat that!

Hey....where's the cream filling?? Remember those commercials? Doesn't this just look amazing?!