Cupcake Wars

One of the girls' favorite things to do is watch Cupcake Wars with their Grannie on Sunday evening.  The problem with watching a show about cupcakes on a Sunday evening is we all get really hungry for cupcakes.  They've been begging me for awhile to have our own cupcake wars.

So on Memorial Day we did.

I went easy on myself and bought 2 cake mixes rather than making the batter from scratch.  I listed the "pantry" choices on the fridge and the girls each planned their cupcake.  For the filling, I made a cream cheese & sugar base and let them stir in their flavor of choice.  For the frosting, I made vanilla buttercream and again, let them add the extra flavor of their choice.  They were thrilled.

Cupcake: butter or chocolate
Filling: cream cheese, chocolate (cocoa), peanut butter, strawberry jam
Frosting: vanilla, chocolate, caramel, lemon
Decorations: twizzlers, silver dragees, colored sugar sprinkles, gummy bears, star shaped marshmallows

Our theme (chosen by Grannie) was Girl Scout Camping.
Cherry Pie made a butter cupcake with chocolate filling and vanilla buttercream, topped with a twizzler camp fire.

Pumpkin Pie made a butter cupcake, no filling, with vanilla buttercream, topped with a smiling girl scout face made with twizzlers and silver dragees

Tamale Pie made a butter cupcake with peanut butter filling and vanilla buttercream, topped with twizzlers and marshmallow stars.

No one chose gummy bears, much to my amazement.

We made Uncle Eddie & his friend Kaitlyn be the judges.  Everybody won and everybody was happy.

I made 2 dozen chocolate cupcakes with chocolate filling and salted caramel buttercream frosting.  (Salted caramel seems to be the fad in desserts right now; it shows up a lot in cupcake wars.  I've been dying to try it.)

I got the delicious recipe I used here at CHOW.com.  (That's right, sisters, I didn't just pin it on Pintrest it, I actually made it.)

Many people who commented on Chow complained about the ratio of butter to powdered sugar.  I personally prefer buttercream that has more butter than sugar, so I knew I would like this one!  I did end up adding a little more sugar, but it was because I heated up the house with all that baking, and the butter was too soft.

Go make some cupcakes.  You know you want to.