Cupcake Pies!!! :]

Take a bite in to a classic, sweet delicacy! With a few simple steps the mouthwatering dessert can be served; it’s as easy as pie!

Designed as the classic pie, Karen Tack and Alan Richardson utilized what the general audience desires and incorporated two ideas in to one. Cupcakes and pies, a global favorite, are combined as M&Ms and attuned frosting was applied to it. A few ingredients were needed in order to create the dish:

• A dozen vanilla cupcakes baked in silver foil liners

• 2 cans (16 ounces each) of vanilla frosting

• Yellow food coloring

• Unsweetened cocoa powder

• A cup of M&Ms
  (Tack and Richardson 49).

I started off by baking the vanilla cupcakes myself. I mixed the batter in with 3 eggs, a cup of water, and half a cup of oil. After a few minutes of mixing, I placed it in the oven set to 325 degrees. While I waited for the batter to cook, I continued on with the recipe and made the frosting portion of the cupcake.

Starting off with scooping 5 teaspoons of frosting in to a bowl, I added the necessary ingredients to give off a more golden hue. These ingredients included adding unsweetened cocoa powder and yellow food coloring to give the frosting an extra touch of color. Placing the new mix in to a Ziploc bag, I snipped a corner of the bag to give the impression of a decorating icing tube (19).

At this time the cupcakes were done, and I was ready to apply the pie design. Placing a thin layer of icing on the cupcake, I assorted the M&Ms so each color corresponded with a certain cupcake. “For the lattice crust, pipe 4 or 5 lines across the top of a cupcake, about ½ inch apart. Pipe 4 or 5 more lines, on the diagonal” (49).

Lastly, I gave the cupcakes a finishing touch with a beaded crust. My family and I have experienced a delicious take following the guidelines Tack and Richardson has provided. Overall, the unique cupcake has given me something different to try while offering a scrumptious touch. Upon making this dessert I began to wonder: Do you think combining two ideas of a dish would make any plate more interesting?

Tack, Karen and Alan Richardson. What’s New, Cupcake? New York, New York. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Boston 2010

Baking, Cooking, Cooling, and Chilling with Alex 😎: Exhausting Frosting

Who doesn't love honey? Who doesn't love frosting? I'm not sure but they won't be too excited with a blog about how I made honey frosting. As my natural cookbook tells, "this light, sweet, fluffy frosting is enough for a two-layer cake including the center, the sides, and the top" (Pinkwater 216) so I'm hyped to see how much we'll end up with. I choose honey frosting because out of this cookbook, it seemed to be the most appetizing thing. To get things started, you need:

2 egg whites

¼ tsp. salt
1 cup warm honey

½ tsp. almond extract
(you can substitute ½ tsp. of lemon extract or vanilla extract for the almond extract)

Material wise, you'll need:

1 small saucepan

1 medium-sized mixing bowl

egg beater or electric mixer

measuring cup

measuring spoons

1 table knife and one spoon for spreading on frosting

There's not too many steps to make frosting in general. To start off, you have to warm up that honey over the stove on very low for about a minute. After that, remove it from the stove and set it to the side (Pinkwater 217).

Enthralling activity

The next thing you'll want to do is get those egg whites into the mixing bowl with the salt and you'll want to beat that with the egg beater or electric mixer until stiff but not dry (Pinkwater 217).

Tasty

The third step is to gradually add honey and the extract (I substituted in vanilla extract instead) to the egg whites while beating constantly (Pinkwater 217).

(Imagine me beating the eggs vigorously while multitasking in the honey)

The last step, probably the best part, is to beat the mix until the frosting holds its shape which is about 2½ minutes with the electric mixer or 4 minutes with the egg beater (Pinkwater 217).

My arms are ruined

My final result, similar to frosting, tasted quite terrible. The smell of it as well just didn't seem right either. So in my last step, I told that frosting to chill 😎

"That's straight embarrassing" -My older sister/photographer, Haelee

In summary, despite my attempts to make the best natural honey frosting, I feel I learned a little. Life is very alike with cooking. Like for instance, I substituted vanilla extract instead of almond extract and stuff like that is done all the time in baking and cooking. Transferring that to the real world, some actions or solutions can be interchangeable, some better and some worse for the situation. I also learned that the end result of somethings can go sour and that's perfectly okay. While I've yet to see what my mistake was when making my honey frosting, I press on and hope for better things in my next project. In the meantime, stay hot and buttery in preparation for my next project, Peanut Butter Cake! Signing off, your guy, your host, Alex.

As to what I should do after the cake:

What sounds more appetizing to you: banana-orange thick juice or orange milk drink? Why? 

Pinkwater, Jill. The Natural Snack Cookbook: 151 Good Things to Eat. New York: Four Winds,  
    1975. Print.