Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cupcakes

I hope you all had a great New Year's Eve and Day! For my office Secret Santa gift swap, I received some boxed cake mixes and frostings from a coworker who knows how much I love baking. I never make using anything boxed mixes and always bake from scratch (I don't want to feel like a faker when I say it's homemade!), so I was skeptical to use any of the mixes I received. But the Cinnamon Toast Crunch muffin mix intrigued me, and as I was falling asleep one night last week, I dreamed up a recipe using the mix that I thought would be delicious - Cinnamon Toast Crunch cupcakes filled with cream cheese and topped with a cinnamon buttercream! I have to say, they were really good and I couldn't tell the batter was made from a box at all! Maybe I should stop being so judgmental...

Cinnamon Toast Crunch cupcakes
makes about 10 cupcakes

for the cupcakes...

• 1 box Betty Crocker Cinnamon Toast Crunch muffin mix
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs

1. heat your oven to 350 F and line a muffin tin with 10 paper liners.
2. stir muffin mix, water, oil and eggs together in a large bowl until there are very few lumps.
3. fill each liner almost to the top with batter and bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
4. allow cupcakes to cool on wire racks.

for the cream cheese filling...

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. in the bowl of your standing mixer, mix together the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth and creamy.
2. cover and chill for at least half an hour.
3. once the cupcakes have cooled, take out the center of each cupcake using your cupcake corer and spoon some cream cheese filling into the center. you will have some left over. I suggest eating it with a spoon. no judgement here!

for the cinnamon buttercream...

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 6-8 cups powdered sugar
• 2-3 teaspoons cinnamon {this is not exact..keep adding to taste}
• Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal pieces for the topping

1. rinse out the bowl of your stand mixer and beat the butter on high speed until light and fluffy.
2. add the vanilla extract and mix until combined.
3. add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, until the frosting is nice and thick.
4. add the cinnamon and mix. {I forgot how much I put in...sorry! just keep adding until the frosting tastes nice and cinnamon-y.}
5. fill up your frosting bag and pipe away!
6. top with a few pieces of CTC cereal.
7. keep refrigerated in airtight containers before serving.