Homemade Ding Dong's

Okay, so I'm pretty much addicted to these. My brother loves them, but that's not saying much because he's a walking garbage disposal. After I got home from basketball practice one night my mom convinced me to try one of them and I fell in love. I ate so many of those little Ding-Dongs I lost count!

Homemade Ding Dong's
Recipe adapted http://www.allrecipes.com/
My[Lisa's] sister first tried this recipe and said I had to try it. She made them into cupcakes, but I wanted to try them in mini cupcakes. They are really good. It made about 50 mini cupcakes, give or take a few with the kids eating them as they came out of the oven! I had a little filling left over, but was a little short on the topping.

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
• 1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 2 1/4 tablespoons water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease mini cupcake pans or line with mini cupcake liners 
2. In a mixer, mix together the cake mix and instant pudding. Make a well in the center and pour in the eggs, oil and water. Mix until well blended. 
3. Bake for 5-10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done. Repeat baking all the mini cupcakes.Cool cupcakes completely.
4. To make the filling, whisk together the flour and milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Set aside to cool completely.
5. Once the flour and milk mixture has cooled, beat the 1/2 cup shortening, butter, sugar and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy. Add the milk mixture and continue to beat for 4 more minutes. 
6. I tried to use a ziploc bag as a pastry bag to pipe the frosting in the middle of each cupcake, but the bag broke. I ended up using a decorator bottle set from The Pampered Chef.  I stuck the tip in the middle on top of each cupcake and squeezed the filling in each cupcake until the cupcake puffed up. 
7. Combine the chocolate chips, 1/4 cup shortening, corn syrup and water in the top of a double boiler. Heat, stirring frequently until melted and smooth. I dipped the top of each cupcake into the chocolate. Refrigerate until serving.

As I've already stated, I'm addicted to these little guys. In my opinion, they're tastier (and probably healthier)  than the store-bought Ding-Ding. The cream inside magnificently complements the extravagant cupcake. The two blend in your mouth so perfectly that you will not be able to just eat one. With or without the topping these cupcakes taste so amazingly magical that no one will be able to resist.