Candy Cane Cupcakes for the Cupcake Challenge

Welcome to the third week of The Holiday Cupcake Challenge! We will be celebrating the Holidays all month long with Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years!

In case you are just joining us, let me update you a little…

Our first week we enjoyed Holiday Flavors and last week was all about Thanksgiving! This week the Challenge is Christmas!

The great folks at King Arthur Flour sent me their Holiday Candy Cane Cupcake Kit! It has Chocolate Cake mix, Vanilla Buttercream mix and crushed candy canes.

As soon as I opened the package of cake mix and dumped it into the bowl, I could tell it was going to be different! The mix was light, had great texture with no lumps…at all!

I’m not sure what ingredients were different in the Buttercream mix, but it definitely tasted different than my normal Buttercream. I have been using I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter and Shortening {equal parts} when I make Buttercream. And the directions on the mix called for butter and shortening, so I stayed with what I have been using.

I also received a new Williams-Sonoma Cupcake Pan last week {psst…watch for the giveaway soon} and I was amazed at how GREAT the cupcakes baked it in.

I baked them in liners, removed the liner and cut the tops off. I added a little peppermint extract and pink coloring to the Buttercream frosting. Piped on the frosting, topped it with the cupcake top and added some sprinkles around the edge.

Then for the top, I simply added a large dollop of white Buttercream using a round tip on my decorator bag and then added a small Candy Cane or a Peppermint Ball.

Since today’s Cupcake Challenge is Christmas, King Arthur Flour has a Holiday Candy Cane Cupcake Kit for the winner! Remember, the winners are being chosen by you and your readers!

Please vote for your favorite from last week’s Thanksgiving Themed Cupcakes!

I have one more surprise for you, The Celebration Shoppe was kind enough to offer their new Mod Candy Cane printables to one lucky reader.

Aren’t they adorable?

Enter to win Mod Candy Cane Printables from The Celebration Shoppe. Giveaway open until Monday, November 22nd at 10 p.m. cst.

Note: The giveaway is for the Mod Candy Cane Printables, NOT the King Arthur Cupcake Kit, the winner of the Challenge receives it.

Required Entry:

• Head on over to King Arthur Flour, come back HERE and tell me what product you would like to try

Extra Entries: Please leave a seperate comment for each entry

• Follow King Arthur Flour on Twitter and/or Facebook
• Visit The Celebration Shoppe, come back HERE and tell me what your favorite product is
• Follow The Celebration Shoppe on Facebook
• Subscribe to Cupcake Chronicles or Hoosier Homemade Leave a comment telling me you subscribed or are already a subscriber
• Follow Hoosier Homemade on Facebook or Twitter
• Follow  It’s A Blog Party on Facebook or Twitter

Now, let’s see what you have for the Christmas Challenge! And remember, you can enter your cupcake until next Monday, the 22nd. and then on Tuesday the 23rd., when you add your New Years Inspired Cupcake,voting will begin for the Christmas Cupcakes. The winners will be chosen by you and your readers. So be sure to let me know!

Congrats to Brenna of Ingredients of a 20something for winning the Holiday Flavor Challenge with her Egg Nog Cupcakes!! She won the What’s New Cupcake 2011 Calendar!

Disclaimer: HoosierHomemade was provided the Holiday Candy Cane Kit from King Arthur Flour  for our review, the opinions are our own. King Arthur Flour is providing HoosierHomemade with the Holiday Candy Cane Kit to give to the Winner of the Christmas Cupcake Challenge. For more information on Hoosier Homemade’s policy, please visit my Disclosure Page.