Hot Fudge Sundae Cupcake

I've been trying some new cupcakes recently. Last weekend I had another installment of cupcake-a-palooza, and this is one of the crowd favorites...It's a hot fudge sundae in cupcake clothing.

They were a little time consuming, but the response I got from them was well worth it. I say response because I didn't actually try one. I've been trying to take off the holiday poundage ... and doing quite well I might add. I've got a bit of a sweets addiction. Once I start eating sweets I just can't stop. When I was a kid with high metabolism this wasn't a problem ... not the case anymore, however. I told my husband the other day that this baking hobby of mine is like being an alcoholic and brewing beer as a hobby. Really not one of the more logical choices I've made.

As I was saying ... time consuming. I started out by just making a regular chocolate cupcake. But then I got a little crazy with it. I bought some hot fudge ice cream topping ... you know, the stuff that comes in a jar that you have to heat up in the microwave. I just used a regular spoon and dropped a dollop of of the hot fudge into each baking cup. My chocolate cake batter is pretty thick, so the fudge didn't sink to the bottom.

I then baked the cupcakes for 19 minutes at 350 degrees. The fudge mostly stayed on top, but some of it sunk down into the middle of the cupcake. Yum!

After cooling, I just used a spatula to spread some vanilla buttercream on each cupcake. I then melted 1/3 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips with a little shortening in the microwave, placed it in a Ziploc baggie, clipped the corner, and drizzled it on each cupcake. I then placed some more of the vanilla buttercream in a piping bag and, with a 1M tip, piped a bit of icing on top. Finally, to make it look like a sundae, I placed a well drained cherry on top.

I have a couple of the cupcakes still in the freezer. After I lose these last 3 pounds I might have to thaw one out to experience the amazingness for myself.