Turtle Cupcakes

Warning: This cupcake may contain extreme amounts of all around goodness that will cause the corners of your mouth to point upward in a huge smile all day long! This cupcake is so stinkin' sweet it is hard not to love it...

Turtle Cupcakes

1 recipe chocolate cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting
1 1/2 cup crushed pretzels
1/2 chopped pecans
11 tablespoons melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
Caramel Apple Dip


Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 30-36 cupcake tins with cupcake wrappers.

Place pecans in a food processor and pulse them for about 3 seconds just to get a rough chop started. Then add pretzels and continue to pulse. You want the pretzels to be a little chunky...definitely do not turn them into a powder!

Pour pretzel and pecans into a bowl. Add melted butter and sugar and stir until combined. Scoop a rounded tablespoon of mixture into each cupcake wrapper and lightly press to bottom to form the crust.

Prepare chocolate cake as directed. Scoop cake batter on top of pretzel crust so your cupcake liners are about 3/4 full. Bake cupcakes for 20-25 minutes...until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

Completely cook cupcakes. Using a handheld apple corer, cut a hole in the middle of the cupcake. Place Caramel Apple Dip in a piping bag with a large round tip. Fill hole in the cupcake with caramel.

Prepare frosting as directed by recipe. Place in a piping bag with a 1M star tip and pipe frosting on cupcakes making sure to cover the caramel. Sprinkle with chopped pecans if desired.

ENJOY!!