Touchdown!! Buffalo Chicken Wing Cucpakes!

So maybe a few of you saw it on the national or even the local news over the last couple of days. Everyone is gearing up for some big game that's going on in Indy this weekend. One of the big news stories to go along with Super Bowl XLVI is the food. This cupcake has made the news more in the last week than probably any cupcake in world history.

A few weeks ago I was sitting down thinking, what kind of different cupcake could I make for the Super Bowl? What kind of foods can I incorporate into a cupcake? With many ideas swirling in this little brain of mine, I sat down at the computer and began researching. Apparently so was every other cupcake baker on the planet. I happened to see a post on Facebook from Stef at Cupcake Project. It was a teaser post letting all of her loyal followers know that she'd be posting a Super Bowl inspired cupcake in a couple of days and to keep an eye out for it. I politely responded back, "I hope you're not using buffalo chicken & ranch!"

A few days later, there it was. The cupcake to beat all other cupcakes! Stef had created a Buffalo Chicken and Blue Cheese Cupcake! Personally I couldn't wait to try it. This is exactly what I had been looking for.

A few days ago I strategically made my way through my local grocery store, making sure I had everything to make these for Super Bowl weekend. Little did I know when I pulled in the parking lot, everybody and their brother thought they needed to shop at the same grocery store I was. I'm on a time crunch here people, can't you see that. I couldn't believe the number of people that had chips and dips and other items to quench their super sized thirsts. I quickly made my way through there in record time! Okay! I've got everything I need.

So today was the day, time to start baking. As I mixed them up, at 6 am, I was instantly transported to our local wings & things restaurant. I could taste the hot, buttery wing sauce dripping off of a crispy, breaded part of the buffalo I've never seen. This is going to be amazing! I popped them in the oven and 15 short minutes later they were a beautiful, orange, hot saucy cupcake.

It was all I could do to wait long enough so that I wouldn't saute my tongue on the hot goodness. When I tasted one, I was amazed.

These cupcakes are not the pretty little cheerleaders of the cupcake world (we'll save that for Strawberry or Red Velvet).  These are the line backers, the full backs, heck, maybe even the quarter backs of The Cupcake Bowl. These are the tied in the 4th quarter, with only 5 seconds on the clock, punting a 55 yard field goal cupcake! They mean business!!

The flavor was amazing, it is a mix of brown sugar, butter, blue cheese, and hot sauce. And hot they were! They're definitely not a sweet cupcake, but I was about to change that.

Stef's original recipe calls for a blue cheese butter cream frosting. I'm not a big fan of blue cheese, however I did use it in the cupcakes, and I figured I better at least try using it in a butter cream. I also had vanilla butter cream already made up that I didn't want to waste, so instead of making a whole new batch of blue cheese butter cream, I decided just to mix the creamed blue cheese into my own butter cream frosting.

I iced up some cupcakes and strategically placed a boneless buffalo wing atop the pile of frosting. Aaahhh. Beautiful! Or I guess handsome would be a better term ( I don't think any of the NFL linebackers would want to be referred to as beautiful!)

Now I was standing there admiring the concoction when I was thinking again how much I really dislike blue cheese, and I thought, well why not try ranch dressing instead (more to my taste). The top picture is just that!

Now taking the field for the [insert most popular NFL team name here], Buffalo Chicken Wing with Ranch Cupcake!!!

So with all props to Stef from Cupcake Project for being the mind and create-all behind my thoughts, yet again ,I am amazed and I hope you will be too!!

Here's Cupcake Projects original recipe with a few changes I added in.

Buffalo Chicken Blue Cheese Cupcakes

For the cake:

• 1/2 cup hot sauce (I recommend a hot sauce that is typically used for Buffalo chicken.  Frank's is the classic choice)
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 egg
• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

For the blue cheese buttercream frosting:

• 2 ounces crumbled blue cheese
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Or for the buttercream with ranch

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 2-4 tablespoons of cream, whole milk, or half & half
• 1 tablespoon of ranch dressing, thinned with milk to drizzling consistency

Instructions

To make the cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. In a medium-sized saucepan on medium-high heat, heat hot sauce and butter until butter is melted.
3. Add the blue cheese and mix periodically until blue cheese is melted.
4. Remove from heat and mix in the sugar.
5. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream and egg. 
6. Once the hot sauce mixture is cool enough to touch, mix the sour cream mixture into the hot sauce mixture.
7. In another small bowl, mix together the flour and baking soda.
8. Fold the flour mixture into the hot sauce mixture.
9. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.
10. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

To make the blue cheese buttercream frosting:

1. Mix blue cheese on high speed until smooth.
2. Add the unsalted butter and mix on high speed until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes).
3. Slowly mix in the powdered sugar until fully combined.
4. Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.

Or for the vanilla buttercream frosting:

1. Mix the butter and shortening on high speed until smooth.
2. Add in the vanilla
3. Slowly mix in the powdered sugar until fully combined.
4. Thin out with cream, milk or half & half to spreading or piping consistency.

On the cupcakes with the blue cheese buttercream I simply placed a boneless buffalo wing on top after frosting the cupcakes. For the ones with ranch, I topped those with the vanilla buttercream frosting, placed a boneless wing on top and then drizzled the ranch dressing over the top of the cupcake.