Piñata (Surprise) Festive Cupcakes

With Valentine's Day around the corner, I thought I would share a baking recipe with you.  This recipe is perfect for any occasion. You can fill with candy hearts for Valentine's day, or mini Easter eggs, or any fancy sprinkles will do.I'm all about baking.  I am also all about cupcake surprises. One of my kids call them piñata cakes...can you guess which kid?  

I like sweet, and I like fancy, so this is a great, simple recipe for any occasion.

I have gluten and dairy issues, and my youngest has egg allergy :(, so I  am in a perpetual state of trying to make a vegan variation of every treat that I love. It's not always pretty, lol. This recipe is NOT vegan ha ha.

Ok, so onward, this is a boxed cake recipe. It's simple. I made the cupcakes a day in advance, covered, and stored them at room temperature. The frosting can also be made a day in advance, covered, and stored in the refrigerator until ready to use.

For the decorating. I took the center core out of each cupcake and filled them with fun sprinkles. I then allowed the kids to do the rest...they simply placed the top of the core back on top and lightly pressed down. Each child got to use the pastry bag to pipe our yummy frosting on top...that was not an easy feat. Then we sprinkled more yummy sprinkles because you can never have to much sprinkles, plus they looked so pretty.

What you Need:

• 15.5 oz Box White Cake Mix
• ¾ c Sour cream
• ¾ c Vegetable oil
• 3 Eggs
• ¼ c Water
• 3.4 oz Box Vanilla Instant Pudding mix
• ¼ c Sprinkles
• 2 tsp Organic vanilla extract
• Pastry Bag
• 1 c Sprinkles or as much as you'd like :) (for insides and sprinkling on top)

What You need to do:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Mix cake mix, sour cream, vegetable oil, eggs, water, vanilla instant pudding mix, and vanilla extract in a large bowl.
3. Add ¼ cup of sprinkles to batter and stir to combine.
4. Pour cupcake batter into cupcake liners in a muffin tin filling each liner 2/3 full.
5. Bake approximately 30 minutes at 350°F or until you can put a toothpick in the center of a cupcake and it comes out clean.
6. Cool completely.

After cupcakes have cooled 

1. Cut a small hole in the top of each cupcake, do NOT go all the way through the bottom.
2. Save the core from the cupcake and trim it so you have a small cap for your filled cupcake.
3. Fill each cupcake with sprinkles.
4. Cap each cupcake with the trimmed core.
5. Pipe vanilla frosting on using the  Pastry Bag.
6. Top each frosted cupcake with extra sprinkles.
7. Enjoy!

Happy Eating.