Rocky Road Cupcakes

I was wanting to bake something. I have been in my parents’ house longer than planned (again). My friend at work was feeling blah and he once told me his favorite dessert is Rocky Road Ice Cream. Got me to thinking. Now I can’t believe I didn’t take pictures. I don’t know what I was thinking. For some reason I did take a few snaps with my phone so please excuse their quality. But I decided I would share the deliciousness of this cupcakes anyway.

Rocky Road Cupcakes

Cupcake Ingredients (adapted from Cookies and Cups):

1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sour cream (I used Lite)
1/2 cup hot water
I didn’t measure here but I would say about 1/3 cup chopped almonds and 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips, instead of both I chopped up chocolate covered almonds and used about 3/4 cup

Marshmallow Buttercream Icing (adapted from Shaken Together):

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
One 7 oz. jar of marshmallow fluff
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions for the Cupcakes:
1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Put cupcake liners in mini cupcake pans
3. Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
4. Cream butter and sugar together in stand mixer (I actually did this with a hand mixer being as my stand mixer is in storage), beating until light, 1-2 minutes. Add in egg and vanilla and mix until smooth.
5. In microwave or over a double boiler melt the milk chocolate.
6. Stir the chocolate into the butter mixture.
7. Add the flour mixture and sour cream in alternating increments, starting and ending with the flour mixture.
8. Stir until combined.
9. Slowly add in hot water and stir until smooth.
10. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake 8-10 minutes until tops are set and spring back to the touch.
11. Cool completely on a wire rack.

I put 3 mini marshmallows on the top of each cupcake in the first pan. I don’t recommend doing this, they stuck to the pan and didn’t come out too pretty.

Make icing:
1. With mixer, cream butter and sugar.
2. Stir in marshmallow fluff and vanilla by hand until smooth and creamy.
3. Place in piping bag and pipe onto cupcakes. (I always put the bag in a tall glass and then fill. This keeps the tops of the bag clean.)
4. Sprinkle tops with some more crushed almonds.

This icing was VERY good, I would make it again, and it looked nice and fluffy. But once I piped it onto the cupcakes nice and pretty, it ran off. So I ended up just spoon scooping it onto each mini cupcake.

As always, I took these to work, don’t want to eat them all. They were a hit. I will have to try to perfect that Marshmallow Buttercream though. Yummy. (And take more pictures next time.)