Spiced cupcakes with praline and cream cheese frosting!

This holiday weekend I was able to spend time ring in the New Year with my future in-laws. For Christmas my niece received a cupcake corer in her stocking and so we decided to make some filled cupcakes for our New Year's Eve party!
We used a spice-cake box mix...which when it comes to cakes there is no huge difference in the quality of the dessert when it is from the box. Mattison and I baked the cupcakes and waited from them to cool. 
Once the cupcakes had cooled on a wire rack, we sued her cupcake cored to take the center out of the cupcakes. The corer worked surprisingly well; you did need to  help the center out a bit. I thought it may crush the cupcake but it really did not; I would how ever recommend slowly twisting the corer in. 

To fill the the cupcake we made a  pecan praline. 
Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 8 egg yolks
• 2 cups brown sugar firmly packed
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon maple flavoring
• 2 cups pecans finely chopped

Makes:

About 2 2/3 cups filling.

Instructions:

step 1

In medium saucepan, combine butter, egg yolks, brown sugar and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly until thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in maple flavoring and pecans. Transfer to medium bowl; cover surface with plastic wrap to prevent skin from forming. Refrigerate 2 hours or until chilled. Stir before using; chill cupcakes. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Side Note: I cut this recipe in half. Half of this recipe was plenty to fill 24 normal sized cupcakes. If you are doing over-sized cupcakes, I would make the recipe as stated.

Once the praline was chilled, we spooned about a spoonful of the filling into each cupcake and place the cupcake core on top of the praline.

To top the these yummy cupcakes, we made Maple Cream Cheese Frosting. To make the frosting beat one 8 oz. package of softened cream cheese with a teaspoon of milk, maple syrup, and vanilla until the mixture is smooth. Then add four cups of powdered sugar; one cup at a time. 

I placed the frosting in  a sandwich bag and cup the tip of the corner to frost the cupcakes.

Side Note: I put the frosting on in a circular pattern and it cover the cupcake cap completely. 

This was a perfect winter party treat. I would highly suggest filling your cupcakes in the future.