My hometown has a little (and I mean LITTLE) Dairy Queen that is only open seasonally. It’s a small shop that has been around as long as I can remember. It closes every fall and re-opens every spring. Everything about it screams small town and I LOVE it. My favorite Dairy Queen treat is a medium chocolate cone (exciting, I know). I also love blizzards. But you know what I REALLY love? The candy coating on Dilly Bars. I could do without the vanilla soft-serve, but I wish I could buy that cherry, butterscotch, and chocolate coating in bulk.
Last summer I made Dairy Queen cupcakes — and this summer I made cupcakes inspired by Dilly Bars. The cherry cupcakes required cherry chips — which were a challenge to find. I had to order them in bulk (six bags) online, so I have a few more cherry chip-inspired posts scheduled this week!
Dilly Bar Cupcakes
Print Recipe
I used box cake mixes for the cupcake portion of each flavor. As a result, you’ll end up with a lot of cupcakes. You can choose to just make one flavor — or you can make as many cupcakes as you want and throw away the extra batter (this is what I did; I chose to make about 8 cupcakes in each flavor).
Buttercream Icing:
I made two batches of the following recipe – and it covered about 24 cupcakes; so if you plan on making about 24 cupcakes, double the recipe below:
1 cup butter
1 two pound bag powdered sugar (about 7-8 cups)
1 tablespoon good quality vanilla
4 tablespoons milk
Dash salt
Cream butter with mixer. Add the vanilla and milk. Slowly add in the powdered sugar. Mix well. This recipe is from iambaker.net
Cherry Dilly Cupcakes:
1 box cherry chip cake mix, plus required eggs/oil (hard to find! I found it at WalMart)
Buttercream icing (see above)
1 bag of cherry chips
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
Round pastry tip + pastry bag
1. Make the cupcakes according to box directions and allow to cool entirely on a wire rack.
2. Using a round pastry tip, pipe icing onto each cupcake.
3. Place the cherry chips and oil into a double boiler; stir until melted and smooth.
4. Dip each cupcake into the cherry coating.
Butterscotch Dilly Cupcakes:
1 box vanilla cake mix, plus required eggs/oil
Buttercream icing (see above)
1 bag of butterscotch chips
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
Round pastry tip + pastry bag
1. Make the cupcakes according to box directions and allow to cool entirely on a wire rack.
2. Using a round pastry tip, pipe icing onto each cupcake.
3. Place the butterscotch chips and oil into a double boiler; stir until melted and smooth.
4. Dip each cupcake into the butterscotch coating.
Chocolate Dilly Cupcakes:
1 box chocolate cake mix, plus required eggs/oil
1 batch buttercream icing
1 bag of chocolate chips
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
Round pastry tip + pastry bag
1. Make the cupcakes according to box directions and allow to cool entirely on a wire rack.
2. Using a round pastry tip, pipe icing onto each cupcake.
3. Place the chocolate chips and oil into a double boiler; stir until melted and smooth.
4. Dip each cupcake into the chocolate coating.
