Kids and Cupcakes

We had a full house for most of the month of December.  We were blessed to have our oldest, a 2nd year law student, and his girlfriend here for almost 2 weeks.  Plus our daughter, who is in college, is back. Their sister, who is a junior in high school, has enjoyed the extra company.

With extra people here, one has to be creative as to what can be done with their “vacation” time.  They all made a list of what they could do together while here.  One of them was to make fun cupcakes.  I have Martha Stewart’s Cupcake Cookbook on the shelf and so they went to work.

Following are the pictures of what they created.  They did this without my help, by following a recipe and being willing to try something new.

You can tell by the results that if you would like to make a gourmet cupcake and have little experience it is achievable.

Which leads me to my little musing that I brought away from their project:

Never get to old to try something new and never let the fear one my fail to stop you from moving forward.  If the 4 of them could put forth these cupcakes . . . .

I think the sky is the limit!

Here are a couple of the recipes we enjoyed!

Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes 

 Makes 15 cupcakes

                            21 Oreos, 15 left whole, and 6 coarsely chopped 

                            1 pound (16 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature

                            1/2 cup sugar

                            1/2 tsp vanilla extract

                            2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten

                            1/2 cup sour cream

                            Small pinch of salt

         

What You Need to Do:

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

2. With an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating tin halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

Peanut Butter-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes (Makes 12)

Ingredients:

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

4 ounces semisweet chocolate

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Peanut Butter filling

Peanut Butter Filling:

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted

3/4 cup smooth peanut butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Stir together all ingredients until smooth. Use immediately.

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Put butter and chocolates in a heatproof bowl set over (not in) a pan of simmering water; stir until melted. Remove from heat, and let cool slightly. (Note - I melted the butter and chocolate in a glass bowl in the microwave at 30-second intervals, stirring in between.)

2. Whisk granulated sugar into cooled chocolate mixture. Add eggs, and whisk until mixture is smooth. Stir in vanilla. Add flour mixture; stir until well incorporated.

3. Spoon 2 tablespoons chocolate batter into each lined cup, followed by 1 tablespoon peanut butter filling. Repeat with another tablespoon of batter, and top with 1 teaspoon filling. Swirl top of cupcake batter and filling with a wooden skewer or toothpick.

4. Bake, rotating tin halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, about 40 minutes. Transfer tin to a wire rack to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature in airtight containers.

 Onward and Upward in 2013,

Julie

Recipe Source: Martha Stewart's Cupcake Cookbook