Rolo Iced Cupcakes

So I'm a huge cupcake fan. To the extent the neighborhood cupcake shop owner asks where I've been when I try to stay away. Seriously.  You know why her cupcakes are the best?  The icing. It's not cheap buttercream gross stuff.  She makes fabulous icing.

A lot of people are really against the shortening type icings, and I understand why.  It really takes away from the cake itself. It's overwhelmingly sweet.  Sure, kids like it, but I don't think most adults really crave it, though we'll eat it.  Hey, we all get a sweet tooth sometimes, and sell ourselves short. No worries.

The point of this really long intro was to give you an alternative to icing when you make cupcakes at home.  I can't make good homemade icing to save my life, and I don't like the tubs of storebought icing either (except that delicious cream cheese icing, yum).


This was totally a spur of the moment thing - my sister in law needed dessert for a mother's day celebration tomorrow, and I just used what I had on hand - no icing.  So I made them around sunset and it was raining.  So while most of my photos have terrible lighting, this is why -

Perfectly good reason to get distracted and have poor lighting.


Grab yourself a bag of Rolos and sit back. Just don't eat them all while you read this. Save yourself at least one per cupcake. Because we are frosting our cupcakes with chocolate and caramel.  I know, right??

So here's how to frost cupcakes with Rolos -

Make your cupcakes as directed.  While they are baking, unwrap as many Rolos as you have cupcakes (plus the couple you'll munch while the cupcakes are baking...the kids who wander by, the wayward husband in the kitchen, so on).  Pull the cupcakes out a minute or so before done time, and top each with a Rolo. Like this.

Put them back into the oven for the last minute or so, and pull out the whole tray when they are done.  The Rolos keep their shape, even when they are gooey.  You'll see that they melt a little around the bottoms, but otherwise stay solid.

Grab a spoon, and use the back of it to carefully mush down each Rolo, and spread it around like icing.  Repeat for all the cupcakes.


When you finish them all, feel free to munch on the rest of the Rolos and admire your handiwork. Gooey chocolate caramel coated cupcakes.  If you are quick, you can toss some sprinkles on the still soft chocolate and caramel before it cools.

Simple enough to make your own cupcakes more gourmet and just plain addicting.  You could theoretically do this with any melting candy, if you're brave enough to see how it turns out.

Hope you have a great weekend and a happy mother's day!  I'm off to visit my mom and mom in law for the weekend, so I'll see you next week!