Nerd Cupcakes & Pioneer Woman's Flour Frosting

A Nerd Cupcake, yep I've seen it all now. I came across this cupcake on Pinterest. This is my new hobby, Pinterest it's an amazing place to play, browse and find so many fun things! Click on over to check it out and/or click on the right and get an invite to come play. I only pin recipes but you can pin anything and everything you find on the Internet to your board. Don't wait, like I did. Check it out now: Pinterest. Now, let's get to these Nerd Cupcakes.

One of my twin daughters LOVES Nerds. And I mean she really really loves them and so when I found this cupcake I knew this had to be one of the cupcakes for their party. While we were in New York last month for their 18th birthday she found a GIANT Nerd box... I think I might have to try and find one of these in California and buy it for her.

I have to say that these cupcakes were the first to go at the party, and NO not just the kids ate them. Everyone took one bite and said WOW these are so good. No one could believe there were nerds throughout the cake and on top of the frosting. I do NOT like Nerds, and I LOVE these cupcakes.

I took about 1/2 box of the 6 oz Nerds and mixed it in the cake mix.

This is the coolest trick to dip the top of your cupcakes in a bowl of the Nerds.

Nerd Cupcakes
found the Nerd idea at Bake it in a Cake
used my own cake recipe

1 box Vanilla Cake Mix
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted
4 large eggs
3 oz Nerds Candy

Preheat oven to 350. Place paper baking cups into regular size muffins. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, buttermilk, butter and eggs. Beat at low speed with an electric mixer just until dry ingredients are moistened. Increase speed to medium and beat 3 to 4 minutes, or until smooth, stopping to scrape bowl as needed. Add in the Nerds and mix by hand.

Spoon batter evenly into prepared baking cups, filling two-thirds full. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until a wooden pick insert in center comes out clean. Let cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely before frosting.

Plain Flour Frosting
from Pioneer Woman "That's the Best Frosting I've Ever Had"

5 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup Butter
1 cup Sugar (not Powdered Sugar)

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. You want it to be very thick, thicker than cake mix, more like a brownie mix is. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. It must be completely cool before you use it in the next step. Stir in vanilla.
While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. You don’t want any sugar graininess left, mix for at least 4 to 6 minutes. Then add the completely cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat the living daylights out of it, another 4 to 6 minutes. Put your timer on and just wait, watch it transform into amazing frosting. Beat it until it all combines and resembles whipped cream.

This frosting is plain, very plain. There is not a sweet taste to this, which is perfect for this recipe because the Nerds are so powerful. These cupcakes need a smooth light frosting.

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