Fruity Pebbles Cupcakes!!

At work we have this ticker/counter thing that keeps track of the number of days that have passed by since the last privacy breach. The ticker is going to be at 365 on Friday. To celebrate, I decided to bring in another batch of cupcakes. To avoid spending loads of $$ on supplies, I used only materials that I already had. Thanks to Sarah, I was able to borrow the special key ingredient - fruity pebbles and marshmallows.

I made yellow buttermilk mini-cupcakes (Martha Stewart's recipe) and threw a few Fruity Pebbles inside the batter. Then I created wafer sized fruity-pebble-treats (think: rice krispie treats). I stuck the wafer to the top of the mini-cupcake with vanilla frosting. Topped the delicious cakes with more frosting, dyed blue. Then I piped "365" on them.

The Wafer: Fruity-pebble-treats Recipe:

• 1/2 stick of margarine (1/4 cup)
• About 10 ounces of marshmallows (eyeball it)
• About 13 ounces of Fruity Pebbles cereal

Heat up the butter in a medium-large saucepan. Add the marshmallows and stir on low-ish heat until marshmallows are all gooey and melted together. Pour in the fruity pebbles and stir until it's the consistency of a rice krispie treat mixture. To put in wafer shape, I grabbed a little at a time and flattened the fruity-pebble-treat into the cupcake tin I used before. They cool quickly. I turned each over and re-flattened before putting them on the cupcakes, to ensure both sides would be flat.

WELL, HOW ARE THEY??

You really can't tell how delicious they are from the horrible quality pictures (see the p.s. note). They are probably my favorite cupcake creation EVER. The wafer offers a great crunch aspect and then you are hit with the fluffy yellow buttermilk cupcake and the vanilla goodness of the frosting. A few friends were over and the first to try was Dave. His reaction: "This is a JESUS cupcake" .... yes, they are that DIVINE. Side note: So happy people came over tonight! Max brought over some chicken enchiladas that were amazing.... nice touch adding corn Max! Tyler updated his blog a little bit, Maren helped me conquer the difficult piping bag set-up, and Dave taught everyone a crazy Michigan card game.

I created an experimental batch with strawberry jam on the inside. Next time: less jam, place jam into cupcake more towards the top to avoid it sinking to the bottom. Result: this is a perfect breakfast TREAT. I liked the hidden jam, you get the sweetness without having frosting everywhere. Imagine: buttermilk pancakes + bowl of Fruity Pebbles + Strawberry Jam on toast = ...

Other experiment: used the new cupcake tin my mom bought me (flower shaped!) and used the fruity-pebble-treats mixture to create a "shell" to fit the mini-cupcake. I then frosted the top blue. It looks amazing split apart. VERY crunchy!

I apologize for the bad picture quality. I was using photobooth in my kitchen. I can't find my camera charger anywhere!! That's bad news for the Vegas trip on Friday...