I have a confession to make.

I only made it through the first four Harry Potter books. And I have only seen the first movie.

Blasphemy! Heresy! I know some of you are screaming this right now, and I’m sorry! Consider these little butterbeer gems my sincere apology.

Truth is, I would love to finish reading the series…but between Indian history, microeconomic analysis, physiology, and environmental policy readings, I haven’t the opportunity this semester. Maybe over winter break? Is it worth it?

(Don’t yell!)

So anyways…my sister’s 17th birthday was this past week. Months ago, we were perusing Pinterest together and she saw some butterbeer cupcakes from amybites that promptly elicited an, “I want THOSE for my birthday!!” Being a good sister, I tucked that tidbit of information away and whipped the recipe back out this week. Now here is where the story takes a less-than-perfect turn.

We all have those “duh” moments in baking, right? Or is it just me? Darn.

Let me rewind a bit. I wanted to take Amy’s butterbeer cupcake idea and adapt it, since I have several boxes of cake mix sitting around. I looked to the soda can cupcake idea and figured I’d do that with a yellow cake mix and a bottle of cream soda. To make the cakes more “butterbeer-y”, I thought it would be a fabulous idea to throw in some butterscotch chips. Sounds okay so far, right?

Well. As any nominally experienced baker would expect, I predicted that the chips would sink to the bottom of the cupcakes. What I did not predict was that the chips would be irrevocably stuck to the paper liners

Sigh.

But I’m no quitter! I scraped the salvageable bits of cake and butterscotch into a bowl, added some butterscotch caramel sauce, mixed it all together, and candy-coated it to make some cute little butterbeer cake truffles instead.

Not a horrible failure, right?

So instead of including the cupcake recipe (which was a disaster), I’m going to include a “what I would have done” recipe for the truffles, which will really only leave out the step that involved frantically scraping mangled cakes from their paper liners

Butterbeer Cake Truffles
Yield: 40-50 truffles, depending on size

1 box yellow cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
1 can/bottle (12 oz) cream soda, room temperature (I used Jones Soda)
1 cup butterscotch chips (about half of an 11 oz bag)
butterscotch caramel sauce (can sub regular butterscotch or caramel sauce here, I’m sure)
1 bag vanilla candy melts
yellow gel coloring, if desired
sprinkles for decoration, if desired

1. Combine the cake mix and soda in a bowl and whisk until only a few lumps remain. Bake the cake in a 13×9″ pan according to box directions. Cool completely before proceeding.
2. Crumble the cooled cake into a large bowl. Melt the butterscotch chips over a double boiler or in a microwave on low power, stirring at frequent intervals to avoid scorching. Add the melted chips to the crumbled cake and mix well.
3. Add butterscotch caramel sauce by the spoonful, at your discretion, until desired truffle consistency is reached. I ended up using around 3-4 Tbsp, but use whatever makes you happiest!
4. Roll the mixture into small, uniform balls and place on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Chill the balls in the fridge (or freezer) for 20-30 minutes before proceeding.
5. Melt the vanilla candy melts over a double boiler or in a microwave on low power, stirring at frequent intervals to avoid scorching. Color with yellow gel coloring, if desired. Dip the truffle balls into the melted candy and tap to remove excess. Place back on the wax paper and decorate with sprinkles while still wet. Cool completely.
6. Dig in!