Mountain Dew Doritos Cupcakes & Cake Pops♥

I visit kids all over Wisconsin on a mission to teach cupcakes.

The last two places I taught cupcakes to kids (young and old) were the New London Middle School and the McMillan Memorial Library in Wisconsin Rapids!

Kids inspire me.

And when I teach them cupcakes..

I remind them to value their imagination forever.

It is probably one of the most valuable gifts every single one of us is born with.

My imagination is how I came up with this cupcake:♥

Mountain Dew Doritos Cupcakes

and/or

Mountain Dew Doritos Cake Pops!

♥

Mini bite sized Dorito/Mountain Dew Cupcakes. ♥♥♥ I like these because you get the flavor in your mouth all in one pop. 

Inspired by all of us (young and old) who have been busted with our hands in the bag of Doritos, cheesy fingers (and all while drinking a sugary soda). It's too good to be bad.  Too savory to be sweet. Too sweet to say no to ♥

See all these happy kids about to learn all about the art of mixing Mountain Dew, Doritos, and cupcakes?! (At New London Middle School).  They all agreed with me that Mountain Dew & Doritos are the perfect after school snack combo.

After I shared a fun try-at-home recipe with them.. the students frosted their cupcakes ♥

I gave them each a sugar cookie heart to bake inside of their Mountain Dew Cupcake. (I told them the best ingredient you can ever bake inside of a cupcake is LOVE).

Mountain Dew Doritos Cupcake Recipe:

(The "Back To School" Version)

Makes about 18 Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 box Lemon Cake Mix

1 Cup Mountain Dew (in place of water in the mix)
1/2 Cup Mountain Dew for dipping your cupcakes after they bake in a bowl to the side.
5 Tablespoons Granulated Sugar

1 T Lime Zest

1 small box instant lemon pudding (in dry powder form)

1 tsp lemon extract
1 Tablespoon lime juice

½ Cup Oil

4 Eggs

Doritos! (in any flavor you wish)

Optional Ingredients:  

♥1/2 Cup Crumbled Doritos to add to batter. (with this option you'll need a Freezer Size Ziploc bag and a rolling pin)
♥Americolor Gel Paste in Electric Green, Leaf Green, Electric Yellow

Method:
♥Before baking..zest your tablespoon of lime zest into a small bowl.

♥In a small bowl to the side, whisk the 1/2 Cup Mountain Dew and Granulated Sugar together. After you bake the cupcakes, you can dip your cupcakes in this mixture to saturate them in the Mountain Dew flavor ♥

♥Some like to add a Dorito only as a cupcake garnish, others like to crumble up and add the Doritos to batter so there are Doritos in the cupcake.  If you are going to add Doritos to the batter....Stuff Doritos inside of a large Freezer Size Ziploc bag.  Roll the rolling pin over the full Ziploc bag.   This will crumble the chips into little pieces,  and now they are ready to bake inside of a cupcake.

1. Pour your box mix into stand mixer.

2. Make sure you pour your Sundrop out of the can ahead of time into a bowl or clear measuring cup so it will lose some of its “fizz”. Once this is done, you can add to your box mix.

3. Add box of lemon pudding, in powder form to the mixture.

4. Add lemon extract, oil, and eggs.

5. Mix on medium speed for about 2 minutes until well blended.

6. Fold in lime zest (and Dorito crumbs if you desire) with a spatula.
7. Optional, for colored batter like pictured above: See my "Fantasy Rainbow Cupcake Tutorial" if you want to layer different colors of green or other color batters inside the cupcake. 

8.  Bake at 325 in cupcake tins (filled about 2/3 full) for appx 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cupcake comes out clean.

9. Once cooled, dip the cupcakes in the bowl of Mountain Dew/Sugar mixture to saturate the cupcakes in Mountain Dew flavor.

MOUNTAIN DEW FROSTING:

13-14 oz Marshmallow Cream

1 lb butter

2 Teaspoons of Lemon Extract

2 Tablespoons Mountain Dew

8-10 Cups Powdered Sugar

For Decorating:

♥Bag 'o' Doritos
♥Little Red or Yellow Heart Candies (they match the colors in the Mountain Dew logo)!
♥If you want to decorate like my rainbow swirls above, my "Fantasy Vanilla Almond Rainbow" tutorial will show you how!

1.  Use a spatula to scrape the fluff and the butter out into your stand mixer.

2.  Mix well until fluffy and well blended.

3.  Gradually add extracts and Mountain Dew for flavoring.

4.  Now add your powdered sugar, slowly until the frosting reaches desired consistency.  (The more powdered sugar you add—the more stiff the frosting will be for decorating).

5.  Last, but not least... Top Each Cupcake with a Dorito!

..If you didn't eat all your cupcakes, you can always turn them into...

Mountain Dew Doritos Cake Pops

(makes appx 30 1 1/2" cake balls)(Click here for a tutorial video)

You will need:

♥Baked Mountain Dew Cupcakes, cooled (see recipe above)
♥Baking Sheet Lined with Parchment Paper
♥Candy Melts
♥Candy Color (in any color you wish.  For Mountain Dew I like to use a dab of green candy color in the white candy melts, that gives it the light green color above).
♥Cake Pop and/or "Sucker" Sticks
♥Cake Pop stand or thick floral foam for cake pops to stand on while they are drying
♥Crumbled up Doritos in a small bowl.  I call them "Doritos Sprinkles" (see technique on crumbling in recipe above).

1.  Once cupcakes are cool, crumble them up into a large bowl or blend in a food processor until cake is all crumbs!
2.  In a large bowl, mix cake crumbs and small dabs of buttercream frosting until cake is a sticky "play dough" consistency. (sticky enough to form into a ball).

3.  Start rolling your cake balls-I roll them into 1" to 1 1/2" cake balls.
4.  Refrigerate until firm enough to dip into melted candy melts.
5.  While cake pops are in the fridge, melt candy melts in a deep microwave proof bowl (on the "defrost" mode until smooth and melted or in 15 second increments until melted.  Watch closely-if you over microwave, candy melts will burn).
6.  Add any candy color desired to your melted candy melts.

Cupcake Bonus: If you want the multi-color "swirl" look pictured above, this is how it's done:
♥Pour melted white candy melts into 3 different bowls.
♥Color each bowl of candy melts a different color (using candy colors of your choice).
♥Select one color as your base and add a tablespoon full of each color to your base.
♥"Twirl" and "Swirl" the colors you just added to your base with a toothpick.  Don't overmix or your colors will all blend together and get muddy.  The goal is for your candy melts to look "marbled" inside the bowl.

7.  Once your cake pops are firm enough for dipping, remove from refrigerator.
8.  Use your melted candy melts as "glue."  One at a time, dip the top part of each cake pop stick in candy melts, and stick 1/2 way down into each cake ball.  Let dry for a few minutes.  This will secure the cake pop stick into the cake ball. And..as magical as it is..you have a cake pop now instead of a lonely cake ball♥
9. Dip each cake pop upside down into the bowl of melted candy melts.  Do not graze the side of the bowl or push the cake pop down into the bottom of the bowl (cake pops are soft and delicate, they will fall off the stick if pushed up against the bowl. Twirl the cake pop gracefully in a circle in the "pool" of melted candy.
10.  Hang the cake pop upside down and lightly shake until the excess candy melts stop dripping off of the cake pop.

11.  Stick the cake pop right side up on stand or in foam to let dry.
12.  Sprinkle on the crumbled Doritos if you want to add Doritos.

If you decorated your cake pops using the "swirl" effect, they might look something like this:♥