Chateau Gateau

Alana

On Saturday Theresa hosted another Indian food dinner. Naturally I made more naan (I’m getting good at it!), but because it was our friend Pang’s birthday last week I also brought a giant cupcake. It may not look basic, but this was a pretty basic cake to make. Yeah, it was a box cake.

Surprisingly, I haven’t busted out my giant cupcake pan since I made a Giant Stout Cupcake for my friend Jocelyn’s birthday in 2013. When Theresa and I chatted about it, we didn’t really feel like anything over the top was a great idea. I offered to whip up a quick box cake, and we both agreed that a giant cupcake would embarrass Pang just the right amount 🙂

Giant Maple Pecan Cupcake

Ingredients

• 1 box of Betty Crocker (or any other brand) Butter Pecan mix
• 1 cup of chopped pecans

• 1 ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp maple extract
• 2 tbsp maple syrup

Directions

1. Prepare your pan by thoroughly coating the sides with shortening and flour (or cocoa if you plan to make your cake chocolate!), and putting a small parchment paper circle on the bottom of the flat portion. Also get out a cookie sheet to put your cupcake pan on.
2. Preheat your oven and prepare the batter as per box instructions, adding in the pecans at the very end.
3. Fill your pan with batter. I used a ¾ cup because it was the first one I grabbed, using roughly a 2:3 top:bottom ratio. I mean really rough.
4. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean from each half (even though we all know the bottom bakes way more slowly).
5. Let cool for a few minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Cool in the fridge for a couple hours prior to frosting your cake.
6. To make the frosting, whip the butter in a stand mixer until light and fluffy. Add the confectioners’ sugar gradually, and continue to mix on medium-low. Add the vanilla, maple extract, and maple syrup; continue to mix/whip until the frosting has the texture you want.
7. Before frosting, use a serrated knife to level off the domed surfaces of the cake.
8. Spread some frosting on the now flat surface of the cupcake, and stick the two halves together. Frost how ever you would like!