The Cupcake Marathon

Good things come to those who wait. My friends, you have waited since Saturday night. Saturday night was the great Cupcake Marathon. Go take a moment, Pour your self a nice tall glass of cold milk, sit down and we'll begin our story... 

Over the past several weeks I have been writing a lot of recipes, and some people have mentioned that they have been a little elaborate. I will grant you, Salad flambe is a stretch for the average meal, but it was making a point. So when I was thinking about doing desserts I decided that whatever dessert we do should be from a box mix. Additionally, there should be a lot of variety.

Enter the cup cake
A box mix cake takes between 35 to 50 minutes to bake. A cup cake takes 15 to 25 minutes to bake. One box makes 18 to 24 cupcakes, or two pans, therefore, two doctored recipes per box. Lots of creative possibilities. For the better part of the week Phyllis, Alex, Andrew, Sharon, and I discussed various possible recipes, eventually narrowing it down to nine:

• a “control” plain cupcake
• Strawberry Cheesecake
• Chocolate Truffle
• Boston Cream Pie
• Chocolate Mousse
• Apple Cake
• Tirimasu
• Cookies and Cream
• and Matryoshka Doll

For the better part of the week I was also on vacation. A long deserved recharge. I had big plans for this vacation! I was going to drywall the pantry; paint the kitchen; organize the shed; clean my son's room; re wire the closet; and then on the second day... well you get the picture... what did I actually do?

Well, you get the picture...

Come Saturday afternoon, time was wasting away and we really needed to get cracking on these cupcakes! After catching up with Sharon, we drove down to the Super Walmart and stocked up on supplies for the marathon and for dinner. There were some last minute substitutions and reductions to the list.

• The “control” plain cupcake was dropped
• The Chocolate Truffle was changed to a Ferrero Rocher
• and The Matryoshka Doll was changed to a Dunkin Donut

Once we got back to Sharon's kitchen (our test lab du jour) we started organizing, by recipe, by ingredient, by prep time, then we were ready to go!

Cupcake Number One: Cookies and Cream

Ingredients

• French Vanilla Cake mix
• Oil
• Water
• Eggs
• Oreo Cookies

Instructions

• Follow instructions on box to make batter
• Take half of cake batter and set aside for other recipe
• Line cup cake pan with individual papers
• Twist open Oreo12 cookies and place cookie side down on bottom of cups
• Take 8 full cookies and crush.

• Mix crushed cookies into batter.
• Pour batter into cups
• Crush 12 cookie pieces that were remaining from the cookie bottoms and sprinkle on top of batter
• Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick placed in center of cupcake can be removed cleanly.

• For Icing, mix milk and confectioners sugar.  Drizzle over the top.  (you'll need to jump to the end to see the finished products)

Check out the cookie crust on the bottom!

Cupcake Number Two: Strawberry Cheesecake

Ingredients 

• Golden Cake mix
• Butter
• Water
• Eggs
• Strawberries
• Flour
• Cream Cheese
• Lemon
• Confectioner Sugar

Instructions

• Follow instructions on box to make batter
• Take half of cake batter and set aside for other recipe
• Line cup cake pan with individual papers
• Thinly slice strawberries and set aside
• Chop 4 strawberries and add to batter.  
• Add one tablespoons flour to batter to offset additional liquid
• Add zest of one lemon to enhance strawberry flavor

• Mix strawberries into batter.
• Pour batter into cups
• Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick placed in center of cupcake can be removed cleanly.
• For Icing, combine 8 ounces cream cheese, juice of 1/2 lemon, and 1/4 cup confectioners sugar.

Tomorrow, we go to Ikea and make Apfelkuchen Cup Cakes and then up to Boston!


Thanks for your patience folks.  The cup cake marathon has been a labor of love and I really wanted to do it justice.


So until tomorrow, I wish you Peace, Love, and Hollandaise sauce!