Guys. I made the most delicious cupcakes in the entire world and want everyone to make them and eat them and love them as much as I did.
Last winter, Sprinkles in Washington, DC offered different cereal-based cupcakes and I tried the Cinnamon Toast Crunch one and fell head over heels in love with it. Sadly, these were only weekly specials and were discontinued. So I looked up recipes online for an attempt to recreate the magic of these cupcakes and came upon a recipe that tasted even better. I made these for my boyfriend’s birthday in August and even though he always claims he “isn’t a dessert person” – a phrase that I will simply never understand – he ended up loving them too!
The recipe I used was adapted from here and I followed the recipe very closely. I don’t even mind that they aren’t entirely made from scratch (it requires boxed cake mix), but I’m sure you could improvise if you know a recipe for a standard cake you like to make!
One thing I was surprised about and had never considered was dipping the top of the cupcake (before frosted) into butter then cinnamon sugar. This was seriously a game changer and gives these cupcakes a churro-like taste as well. It can’t be beat!
Ingredients for 24 Cupcakes
- 1 box, French Vanilla Cake Mix
- 1 small box (3.4 oz) vanilla instant pudding mix
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Cinnamon Sugar Coating:
- 4 tablespoons salted butter, melted
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
- 8 oz (1 block) cream cheese, softened
- 2/3 cup heavy cream
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- 2 cups Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, for garnish
Baking Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and line 24 muffin tins.
- In the bowl of your mixer, combine cake mix, pudding mix, milk, vegetable oil, sour cream, eggs, and cinnamon. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds. Scrape the sides of the bowl and increase mixer speed to high. Beat for 2 minutes.
- Stir a few times with a big wooden spoon, then fill prepared muffin cups 2/3 of the way full.
- Bake for 15 – 20 minutes, until tops spring back when lightly touched in the center. Remove from oven and let cool in the pans for 5 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.
- In a small bowl, combine granulated sugar and ground cinnamon. In another bowl, add the 4 tablespoons of melted butter.
- Dip the top of a baked cupcake in the melted butter, then dip into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Repeat with remaining cupcakes. Set aside remaining cinnamon sugar for topping.
- For the icing, beat butter and cream cheese on medium speed until smooth and combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Add vanilla and heavy cream, beating on medium speed until smooth. With the mixer on low speed, slowly and carefully add powdered sugar until just barely combined. Increase mixer speed to high and beat for two minutes.
- Generously frost cupcakes. Top with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar and stick cereal into frosting as you wish.
- Keep these cupcakes refrigerated if they are not served immediately.
- Enjoy these amazing cereal cupcake creations!
C'est le Brie 