Chocolate Rolo Cupcakes

First off - THANKS so much Lynna from Hearts in my Oven for her awesome post that she did here, was a winner. She had no clue - but I am totally in LOVE with anything blueberry. I could eat blueberries with anything if I had the chance, speaking of which this berry butter Ree from The Pioneer Woman made would be the ultimate spread for Lynna's muffins! Wow. I am drooling just thinking about it - just kidding! But almost! You muct stop by at Hearts in my Oven and see her wonderful bakes - like this cookies and cream ice-cream pie!

Ok, so I have not fallen off the edge of the coast of Southern Africa! I am still here! And I am celebrating tonight, having just handed in my FINAL assignment for this year! YEY! Now all I have to worry about is the exams coming up at the end of this month - BUT not tonight. I am taking a break from all that 'brain growing' stuff and am taking a lil time out for some 'belly growing' stuff. And these chocolate rolo cupcakes are so worth the belly growing! They are decadent. I am not sure how else to describe them! They are moist, chocolaty, dense and divine! They deserve all these exclamation points this posts seems to be yielding!

I have a thing for cupcakes. They can be turned into anything your heart desires! For example, you feel like a lemon meringue cupcake- yup, you can do that, you want a mini cheese cake - yup! Um, you want bannoffie pie-ish cupcakes - yup! Cheryl from Tidy Mom has even made ice cream cupcakes (yes they are on my list of things to make)! This is the reason I make cupcakes so often. They are like little blank canvases on which you can paint flavours to your hearts content! These Rolo ones are a total original creation, I have always loved rolos and recently became obsessed with them when my sister, Amy, made a Rolo dessert by using a Pilsbury Chocolate Brownie mix and added Rolos (lots of them). It is amazing. So these were inspired by you A!

I made my usual chocolate cupcake mixture, cept I have now found a really lazy way of making them. My mom would be horrified, but, instead of creaming and folding and la la la, I just dump all the ingredients into the mixer bowl, and mix it on high speed for a minute or two and voila! Done! Like I said, this is my blank canvas. Now its time for the good stuff...

And this gets dumped into this...

I don't know if any of you fellow South Africans have noticed the new Rolo chocolate slabs - aren't they great! In fact there seems to be a whole whack of new slabs that have hit the shelves in the last couple of months. It makes me so excited. I love new stuff! Anyhoo...

For these to be the real deal - they need caramel centres. See what I meant when I said decadent, maybe even sinful. If you are really feeling energetic, you can make your own caramel, but if you like short cuts (don't judge, I was busy! I bought the tinned version for these!) you can just buy some! First I filled the bottom of some prepared liners with some of the cupcake mixture, then I popped a teaspoon of caramel on top of the cupcake mixture. Make sure there is enough mixture covering the liners, or the caramel will sink and stick to the liner when they are baked. Which is ok, just a pain to try and get the cupcake out of its liner!

Then I spooned the rest of the mixture over the caramel, making sure that no caramel was peeking through. Check out those chunks of Rolo chocolate sticking out... *melt*

It was tempting, but no, I didn't lick that right off there. I saved what was left in the tin to add the finishing touches on the frosting.

I made some chocolate fudge frosting for these and used a big round nozzle to pipe these swirls on top. And then I used the left over caramel here to finish them off. And added a whole Rolo just for effect, I mean they were so loaded with chocolate they didn't need any more, but it just looked so awesome!

And, here is the good part...

SO worth baking! Really! Just do it! :)

Here is the recipe:

Chocolate Rolo Cupcakes {printable}

 Makes about 24 cupcakes

Cupcakes

2 cups flour
¾ cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup full fat mayonnaise
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/3 cups freshly brewed coffee
2 slabs Rolo chocolate (about 100g) - chopped
2 tins caramel treat / Dulce de leche
Rolos for decorating

• Preheat oven to 180' C / 350' F .
• Add all the ingredients in a mixing bowl except for the freshly brewed coffee and mix on high speed until combined
• Add the coffee bit by bit until it is all mixed in
• Add the chopped up rolo chunks and mix
• Fill some prepared cupcakes liners so the bottom is covered
• Spoon a teaspoon of caramel into the cupcake liner so it sits on top of the cake mixture
• Cover the caramel with the remaining cake mixture but be careful not to over-fill (¾ way is perfect!)
• Bake for about 20min. (I usually check after 15 min and take them out at about 18min)
• Let them cool completely before frosting them

Chocolate Fudge Icing
(depending on how you choose to ice these (the method I used took a lot of icing!) you may need to make a double batch)

250g softened butter
560g icing sugar
dash of vanilla essence
dash of cream
2 tablespoon cocoa powder
100g melted dark chocolate - cooled but still runny

• In an electric mixture, mix butter and icing sugar until smooth and fluffy, adding the cream bit by bit until a nice smooth piping consistency is reached.
• Add the vanilla essence and mix a bit more
• While the mixer is running, slowly add the chocolate and beat.
• Ice your cooled cupcakes as you wish!