.: Milky Way Midnight inspired Cupcakes

I woke up yesterday craving a Milky Way Midnight candy bar (the best version of Milky Way ever!) but as always I was in the mood to bake. So my creativity started flowing and I decided to go with the best of both worlds and bake a cupcake with the same components as the MWM- dark chocolate, caramel, and vanilla nougat.

I decided to make a chocolate cupcake, nougat filling, caramel drizzle, and dark chocolate ganache. Nougat seems super ambitious for the average baker. And trust me, once you find the right recipe its no problem at all. I had to test out a few and I failed. (and by I failed I mean I had to throw away the pot and a few utensils)

After that mishap I found a much simpler and totally do-able recipe. All you need is:

2 egg whites

4 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp light corn syrup

4 tbsp honey

4 tbsp water

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. In a bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff.

2. In a saucepan, combine powdered sugar, corn syrup, honey, water, and vanilla over low heat. Stir until mixture reaches 275 degrees.

3. Slowly whisk the syrup mixture into the egg whites.

4. Spread mixture into a pan lined with baking paper or tin foil. (if using tin foil, spray with non-stick cooking spray) Place another sheet on top and a light weight. (I used a cook book) Let that sit for atleast 20 minutes.

You could use store bought caramel sauce but homemade is much better and extremely easy to make. All this recipe requires is:

5 tbsp water

3/4 cup sugar

2/3 cup heavy cream

1. In a small saucepan, combine sugar and water. Stir over low heat until sugar dissolves.

2. Increase the heat to high. It will start to bubble after a few minutes and start to become a light amber color.

3. Once the mixture turns to a dark amber, turn off heat and add the cream. Whisk to combine that.

Ta-Da you have homemade caramel sauce. Super simple!

Chocolate ganache is probably one of the best things ever discovered in the dessert world. All you need is:

1 cup heavy cream

9 oz chopped chocolate (I used dark for this specific recipe)

1. In a saucepan, heat the cream over medium heat. And bring that just to a boil.

2. Once the cream just starts to boil, remove from heat and whisk in chocolate.

In the midst of all this, you need to bake chocolate cupcakes. Just this one day I decided to go with a box mix (which I typically do not do because I prefer to make everything from scratch) but I will share my from-scratch recipe on a later recipe.

To Assemble:

1. Once cupcakes have cooled, scoop out the middle.