Tough Mudder inspired Cupcakes!

This Summer I did Tough Mudder in Lake Tahoe with my Aunt and some friends. It wasn't my Aunt's first Tough Mudder, but it was mine and boy was I nervous! It was a beautiful  12 mile hike through Northstar Ski Resort, tackling about 20 different, muddy, wet, challenging obstacles along the way and it was so much fun! Don't get me wrong; it was grueling, and hot and long, it puts your physical strengths and mental boundaries to the test. But there's something about pushing yourself that's exhilarating and it's so fun to overcome both physical and mental obstacles with friends cheering you on!

In honor of finally becoming a Mudder and looking forward to doing it again next year, I baked a batch of Tough Mudder inspired cupcakes! 

Also, I couldn't pass up the  tub of bright orange frosting that caught my eye at Safeway, it fueled my inspiration further and chocolate devil's food cake seemed Tough Mudder appropriate so I went with it! Baking cupcakes from packages is always easier for obvious reasons and this time I switched apple sauce for the vegetable oil in the cake mix to keep things on the healthy side. One of our favorite road trip snacks to and fro Tough Mudder was peanut butter and chocolate Chex Mex Muddy Buddies! Perfect Tough Mudder munchies, right?! I had to find a way to incorporate them into these cupcakes!

Once I the cupcakes were covered with the shocking orange colored, vanilla flavored frosting I sprinkled smashed up muddy buddies all over them and stuck a couple hot tamales in each one ( I swear I had heard there would be fire somewhere on the course). 

In the end they didn't look very appetizing but my Tough Mudder cupcakes tasted alright! Besides being a little more dense than usual, using apple sauce instead of vegetable oil didn't make much of a difference. The peanut butter muddy buddies gave a nice little hint of peanut butter and a little bit of a crunch while the chewy hot tamales through in a cinnamon twist! These cupcakes were overloaded with different flavors and were kind of intense, but they wouldn't be Tough Mudder cupcakes if they weren't intense, would they?

I gave half the cupcakes to my fellow mudders, one to our friend we're hoping to convince to join us next year and the rest I brought to work for my co-workers, one of which also did Tough Mudder! She was delighted by my Tough Mudder treats and happily rewarded herself with one but my other co-workers did not partake. I guess cupcakes aren't the best thing to bring to work if you work at a gym!