Chocolate Birthday Cupcakes

Servings:	16 cupcake towers
Rating:	10 Discussions

It’s a birthday cake tower made with chocolate cupcakes and a crafty peanut-buttercup top disguised as a tiny cupcake. Now you can truly have your cake and eat it too! These are easier to make than it may seem at first, and are sure to score points at any birthday party or special event.

1 box (18.25 ounces) Moist Deluxe Devil’s Food Cake Mix
1 can (16 ounces) Creamy Home-Style Classic Chocolate Frosting
18 mini chocolate peanut butter cups
1/2 cup each pink, blue, green, yellow and orange sprinkles
1/2 cup Duncan Hines Creamy Home-Style Classic Vanilla Frosting
Yellow and red food coloring
192 pieces white licorice pastels (Jelly Belly)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 16 muffin cups with brown paper liners and 16 mini muffin cups with brown paper liners. Prepare the cake mix according to package directions. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake until cupcakes are lightly golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 18 to 21 minutes for the standard cupcakes and 10 to 14 for the mini. Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack and cool completely.
Arrange the colored sprinkles in small shallow bowls. Tint the vanilla frosting bright yellow with the food coloring. Add a few drops of red and mix until almost all blended. Spoon the frosting into a freezer weight resealable bag and seal the bag.
Working on one cupcake tower at a time, spread the tops of a standard, mini and a mini chocolate peanut butter cup with some of the chocolate frosting and make smooth. Roll the edges of each cupcake and candy into a different colored sprinkle to coat. Assemble the tower from largest to smallest. Press the white licorice pieces all over the tower into the chocolate frosting as the candles. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes, frosting and candies.
Snip a small corner from the bag with the yellow frosting and pipe a dot on top of the white candies as the flame on the candles.