Going with the "candy bar cupcake" trend, I combined my love of cupcakes with one of my favorite flavor combos- Turtle! Turtles are an old time candy combining pecans (or cashews) with caramel and chocolate. My Turtle Cupcake is a dark chocolate cupcake with a turtle candy baked right in! Topped with a dark chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream, a caramel drizzle and a chocolate dipped pecan. This cupcake is a delicious sweet treat sure to please any chocolate lover!

I have been baking almost all of my life, I think I baked my way through the entire dessert section of my mom's old "Fannie Farmer" cook book when I was in my teens! Later in life I found my self leaving my office job when we had to relocated for a great career opportunity that came up for my husband. I was 6 months pregnant at the time and we agreed I wouldn't go back to work right away so I could be home to raise my son. I found myself going a little stir crazy and decided to incorporate my craft/art hobby with my baking hobby to start decorating cakes... and soon after my business Happy Cakes by Renee was born! Why Happy Cakes? I made my nephew's first birthday cake... after we sang "Happy Birthday" and ate cake, he called the cake "Happy Cake" and from then on EVERY cake was "Happy Cake" so it stuck!