Description
Obviously, these are great any time of year, but they’re always a hit as part of my Thanksgiving dessert spread. Make the Hershey Kiss acorns ahead of time, and use any kind of sprinkles you like. In addition to any sprinkles, if you want them to look like they came from a high end bakery, dust on some edible gold glitter on top of the frosting. Get ready to sign autographs. Serve these and you’ll be a rock star.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, sugar, and cocoa powder.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, or in a large bowl using a hand mixer on low speed, mix buttermilk, vegetable oil, vanilla, red food coloring, white vinegar and eggs.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients until combined, and increase speed to medium. Beat for 5 minutes.
- Line two muffin pans with cupcake liners. Fill each liner about halfway with batter. (Not essential to have, but a funnel pitcher is perfect for this kind of job to minimize the mess.)
- Bake for 17-19 minutes, checking for doneness with a toothpick or cake tester. Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Beat together the butter and cream cheese.
- Slowly add the confectioners sugar and incorporate, a little at a time until completely blended. Add the vanilla and mix.
- Frost the cupcakes with a knife or offset spatula, or using a pastry bag and large tip.
- Decorate the top with chocolate sprinkles and/or edible glitter. Then top with a Hershey Kiss acorn, if desired (see below).
To make edible acorns:
- Using the frosting as your glue, attach one peanut butter chip to the top of each mini Nilla Wafer.
- Then using another dab of frosting, attach each Nilla Wafer to the bottom (flat side) of a Hershey kiss. Allow to dry before using them as cupcake toppers.
Notes
This recipe can be used to make a Red Velvet layer cake if you prefer, using two 9″ cake pans and the same cream cheese frosting!
Use red food coloring with caution! It has a tendency to splash and get on things you don’t want to stain, like clothing and countertops.
You can absolutely use a butter knife to spread frosting on your cupcakes. If you want to level up the look of your cupcakes, use a pastry bag with a large star tip. I use disposable pastry bags, snipping about an inch off the bottom, dropping in a tip, and spooning the frosting into the bag about 3/4 of the way full, then rolling down the top of the pastry bag until there’s no air at the top. You can then squeeze frosting onto your cupcakes circling from the outer edges around in a spiral towards the center of the cupcake.
You can find all kinds of gorgeous sprinkles on Amazon, as well as edible glitter (my new obsession). Get creative!
If making the Hershey Kiss acorns, make them the day before or a few hours before you’ll need them. The frosting (posing as glue for this recipe) needs time to dry so they don’t fall apart while you’re placing them on top of your cupcakes. I usually make mine the day before and store them carefully in a single layer, in an airtight container.
Recommended tools & equipment: Disposable pastry bags and large star pastry tip, or small offset spatula, electric stand mixer or electric handheld mixer, funnel pitcher, cake tester. For really exceptional-looking cupcakes: edible glitter.
- Prep Time: 50
- Cook Time: 19
- Category: dessert, cake, cupcakes
- Cuisine: American