Hot Cocoa Cupcakes

For Christmas every year, I make big gift baskets for our family members with lots of homemade goodies in them...all sweet, of course (though, I am looking for some good savory items to put in for this year coming up). This past Christmas while buying ingredients for the baskets, I came across these adorable marshmallows...French Vanilla marshmallows shaped like little snowmen (you'll see in the picture). So, I have been trying to figure out how to use them. I usually put Snowman Soup in the baskets, but I didn't this year for some reason. On the back of the bag was the recipe for this cupcake. Sounded cute. So, I tried it. What it boils down to is this: This is just a chocolate cake with chocolate whipped cream on it. Very easy to put together. They were very good. I prefer whipped cream over buttercream most of the time anyways. They were really cute, too. Because I made these on Superbowl Sunday, I made some chocolate Fleur de Lis to put on them as well (again, see picture).

Recipe Source: Kraft Foods

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pkg. (2-layer size) devil's food cake mix
• 2 cups JET-PUFFED Miniature Marshmallows, divided - Of course, I used the cute French Vanilla Snowman Marshmallows
• 4 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed
• 1 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder - I omitted this. I topped some of them with shaved chocolate instead.

DIRECTIONS

1. Prepare and bake cake batter as directed on package for 24 cupcakes; cool completely.
2. Meanwhile, place 1 cup of the marshmallows, the chocolate chunks and milk in large saucepan; cook on low heat until marshmallows and chocolate are completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring constantly. Cool at least 30 minutes. Gently stir in whipped topping.
3. Frost cupcakes with the whipped topping mixture; top with the remaining 1 cup marshmallows. Sprinkle evenly with cocoa. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Store leftover cupcakes in refrigerator.

Yields 24 cupcakes.