Robicelli's Liddabit Cupcakes

All this week, our friends Allison and Matt from Robicelli's will be sharing recipes from their cookbook Robicell's: A Love Story, with Cupcakes, hosting a Twitter chat, answering our questions, and giving away a book every day.  

Today: A cupcake that is cryptically familiar to one of the Robicellis' favorite candy bars.

I remember our son Atticus’s first Halloween so vividly: He was seven months old, yet we still took him trick-or-treating, because, honestly, what’s the point of having an adorable baby dressed as a lobster unless you can use him to score free candy? We still make our kids pay us out at least a third of their haul every year because candy is really bad for kids, and the kids shouldn’t be eating it. Matt and I are totally willing to sacrifice our bodies and eat all the candy to protect them.

We’re both incredibly partial to a certain peanuty, nougaty, caramel-y chocolate bar that we’re not allowed to say out loud, but we thought it would make an amazing cupcake -- and what do you know? It did make an amazing cupcake! For legal purposes we couldn’t name it after the mego-globocorporation that inspired it. Fortunately, our super-close friends over at Liddabit Sweets were also inspired by it, making their own candy bar version called The Snacker. So this cupcake isn’t named after Candy Bar X -- it’s named after the candy company that makes the tastier knockoff version of Candy Bar X, which gives us three degrees of separation between us and a potential lawsuit.

Matt says: Why Marshmallow Fluff instead of soft nougat? Because it’s pretty much the same thing. You can make your own Marshmallow Fluff if you want, but really, aren’t you already doing enough? Plus, the most common brand in stores is all-natural, HFCS-free, and very much like what you’ll end up making yourself.

Liddabit Cupcakes

Salted Caramel

1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
2/ 3 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon kosher or sea salt

Chocolate Cake

3/4 cup cocoa powder
2/ 3 cup scalding-hot coffee
2/ 3 cup buttermilk
2/ 3 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Salted Caramel–Nougat Buttercream

One recipe French Buttercream 
1/3 cup salted caramel (from above)
1/2 cup marshmallow fluff
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

Photo by Eric Isaac

Want to win a copy of Robicellis: A Love Story, With Cupcakes? Tell us in the comments: What candy would you most like to see in cupcake form? We'll choose one random winner each day, and announce them this Friday! (Unfortunately, we can only ship books within the US.)