Hot chocolate season is fully upon us! And while your social media feeds are probably filled with hot chocolate bombs or cute mugs with hot chocolate and marshmallows, I figured I would share my hot chocolate recipe with a twist! And while I love making cupcakes from scratch, during the holiday season I don’t always have the time to do it and this is where boxed cake mix comes in handy!

24 cupcakes / 15 mins prep time / 35 mins total time

Ingredients

Bailey’s Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

1 box of chocolate cake mix

2/3 cup milk/water, or half of what is stated on boxed cake mix

2/3 cup Bailey’s (other half of the milk/water that is being asked on cake mix)

½ cup vegetable oil, or as stated on boxed cake mix

3 eggs, or as stated on boxed cake mix

Whipped Cream Frosting

½ cup cream cheese, softened

½ cup icing sugar

1½ cups whipping cream

½ tsp vanilla

Marshmallows, for garnish

Caramel sauce, for garnish

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 °F.

Add all ingredients of the cupcake portion and mix until smooth and evenly combined.

Divide evenly into 24 lined cupcake tray. Bake for 17 mins or until toothpick is inserted and comes out clean.

Allow cupcakes to cool before decorating with frosting.

To make the frosting, beat the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla until well incorporated. Then add the whipping cream. Beat until cream is whipped.

When the cupcakes are fully cooked, frost the cupcakes. Drizzle with caramel sauce and top with marshmallows! Enjoy!

Note: on the boxed cake mix, I halved the liquid portion and subbed it for the baileys. For example: my cake mix called for 1 ¼ cup of milk/water, I added 2/3 cup of milk and 2/3 cup of bailey’s.