Mudslide cupcakes in a jar - week 8 of the 12 weeks blog hop

These are the perfect portable treat!  Oh and there is booze in there!

  So I am really enjoying this blog hop. I have been so lucky to be able to join, even though I have not made a cookie yet.  I hope this week is no different because I have been wanting to make these for a very long time.

  I first saw the cupcake in a jar on Glorious Treats and was smitten with them right away.  I did attempt them once, and it did not end well.  I bought the wrong size jars and didn't figure it out until I went to put my cupcakes in the jars.  Sigh; I was upset, but not upset enough to not make them.  They tasted great, looked bad, and I ended up with about 2 dozen jars and no reason to use them.  I did eventually figure out that the jars were perfect to put itty bitty cookies in.  So I was really just being prepared for making little jars of cookies.  See I am smart.

Any guesses as to the secret ingredient?

  Anyway, on with the treat for today. I had been thinking about what I could make that was different and sort of sinful and you know, over the top.  Then it hit me, Mudslide Cupcakes.  My theory being that a mudslide is decadent and chocolaty and full of alcohol.  I was so excited because I had a bottle of Irish cream in the pantry.  But like every other bottle of liquor in my home, it was old.  But I figured it would still be good, it's alcohol, that doesn't go bad right?  Well I was wrong, it was past due, a year past due.  What kind of person lets liquor go to waste like that?  Well I do, we got lots of stuff when we first got married and the first few years after.  But we are not drinkers.  Not because we are against it or anything, we just don't drink. Hubby will have the rare beer now and then.  I used to, trust me Hubby has a few stories he could tell, but he won't.  If he knows whats good for him.  Anyway my plan was almost lost, but I decided that this blog could not go on without some sort of booze, so I made the hubby go with me and I got another bottle, a smaller bottle. But still, I got booze!

I used a little bit of milk, like 1/4 cup, then 2 TBS vanilla bean paste, and the rest was Baileys. Lot's and Lot's of Baileys.

    So to start I bought the right jars this time, the little ones, and washed and dried them. Then I got to making the cupcakes for them.  I used a cake mix.  Again.  I know.  But I like the texture and I really wanted to use what I had on hand.  So I had box mix and worked with it.  For each jar you need 1 1/3 cupcakes.    I baked them in wrappers because if you don't then you have to grease and flour a muffin tin and then you have to wash it after.  So, your welcome, cupcake wrappers it is.

  I baked and cooled the cupcakes and then got to making the icing.  I had planned to make it with all Baileys, but that would have been wrong.  So I put in a little milk, just to make it not too boozy.  It turned out really boozy, but I don't think it's enough to get you drunk.  I mean I am still typing this after eating a cupcake right?  Well there was not as much icing on the cupcake as in the jar, so maybe don't drive right after eating this. (I am a cheap drunk)

Mudslide cream cheese icing
(I just sort of made this up as I went)

2 packages of cream cheese
1 cup butter
icing sugar*
2 TBSP vanilla bean paste or just vanilla
milk or Irish cream or half of each **
Irish cream flavouring to taste (if you are not using the real stuff, and if so replace the booze with milk)
1 cup chopped malted milk balls

*as much as you need to get the amount and consistency you need
** same as the icing sugar as much as you need

  Mix the cream cheese, butter and vanilla bean paste until light and fluffy, then add a little milk.  I then added some icing sugar to thicken it up.  Now I just started dribbling in the Irish cream, and I put in a lot. I wanted the flavour to really come through.  I added enough to make the mixture really sort of thin, almost like tooth paste, then I just kept adding icing sugar until I made it thick enough to hold when I piped it.

  I had enough for 12 jars (I used 16 cupcakes) and I also had enough for 3 large cupcakes ( for me) and 2 dozen mini cupcakes to give to the elevator guys at work and there was still about 3 cups of icing left over.  So you can half this if you are making less, which is probably the case.  I just like to make lots then use the extra later, I froze it, so I can use it whenever I like.

  Then just to go over the top a bit I wanted to add some crunch, but not a lot of crunch, so I took some malted milk balls I had from Halloween and crushed them up .  I put them in a freezer bag and used my meat tenderizer to crush them, they where hard!

All set up to go, I made three at a time.

  To get set up, put your icing in a piping bag with a large star tip.  I use disposable bags, of course and I used a lager tip, the kind you would use to frost large cupcakes.  I cut my cupcakes and got my jars lined up to put them together. I worked 3 jars at a time

From the left, the first layer, then icing, then crushed milk balls.

  First put 1/2 of a cupcake into the bottom of the car, then pipe on a layer of icing.  Now you can sprinkle a little bit of the malted milk balls if you like, and I like, so I did.  Then put another 1/2 cupcake and repeat.  At this point depending on your jars you may put in another layer or stop now.  It's all up to you. I ended up putting 1/3 of a cupcake on for the 3rd layer. When you are done, make sure you make the top swirl of icing nice and sprinkle the malted milk balls to make it look like the top of a nice cupcake.

All done!

  Now a few things I found.  The tops of the cupcakes don't drop into the jar like the bottoms, just push it in a bit.  Then as you layer you may need to push down your cupcake layers to make it all fit in nicely.  No worries it works great.

All ready for the fridge, with a spoon tied on.

  Then you just put the lids on and they are done.

  I got a little crafty here, and made tags.  I used some of my scrap booking stuff to cut out two shapes.  I punched out flowers then some circles.

I used my die cutter and my sticker maker to make it easy to attach my tags.  I wrote with  a glitter pen.

You can either tie this on or make it easy and just stick them on the lid.

  Once you are done you can just leave them as is, or like I like to do, tie a spoon on with a ribbon.  Makes it the perfect one serving treat.

I had a few extra cupcakes so I made them for me to eat at home.  Also for the guys at work who are busy I made 2 dozen mini ones so they could eat them faster.  Also a little less booze so they can keep on working, just kidding not enough for regular people to get a buzz, just me!

  Now these need to be kept in the fridge due to the cream cheese.  They taste like a Baileys cheesecake, they are so rich and the little crunch of the malted milk balls really adds something.  I will make these again for sure!
  Hope you try it out and check out Glorious Treats, she had done a lot of different jar treats.