sweettooth

hostess with the mostest… cupcakes, that is

~ eatingcookiesinbed ~ 2 Comments

Some people Google-search their crushes, or their exes, their favorite celebrities or hottest trends. Me? I Google-searched my favorite childhood snack cakes the other day.

Growing up in Montreal, sleepover parties and special bagged lunches were not complete without a Vachon brand snack cake, namely a delightful and creamy May West treat.

As I flipped though images of these delicious snacks, I was reminded of the iconic Hostess cupcake that was so scarcely available in my neck of the woods. I remember tasting one for the first time on a road trip across the border and deciding that these cupcakes were absolutely adorable to look at and super-fun to eat!

Feeling inspired to jump on the bandwagon of bakers who have created their own homemade takes on this classic, I decided to try my hand at it. My goal was not to recreate the exact flavor, I live dangerously close to a 7-11 that carries the real thing if that if what I am after.

Instead, I used the flavor and composition as my guide and selected my favorite recipes for each element in order to produce a delicious, fancier-pants version. With this system as my template I am feeling pretty excited about making even more flavor variations.

But for now, I will enjoy the infallible combination of moist chocolate cake, fluffy light-as-a-cloud white icing and deep chocolate ganache.

I made my favorite chocolate cake recipe but divided it into lined muffin tins. I let these cool and rest overnight. Breaking this process up between two days helped saved me some energy and some mess.

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I got my whipped filling on the go. I debated using jacked up marshmallow fluff, but settled on a light vanilla cream frosting for the centers of my cakes.

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With my mixer on the go I heated up some cream to pour over my chopped semi-sweet chocolate, resulting in the creamiest dreamiest ganache.

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I cored my cupcakes, saving the scooped out portion to place back on top after piping the cavities with the fluffy filling.

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After sealing in the cupcakes with their previously removed cores, I flooded the tops with my cooled, glossy ganache. I whipped up a fraction of my usual Classic Buttercream icing recipe while to cupcakes chilled to set.

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I piped a little design on the tops of the finished treats and wasted no time completing a very thorough taste-test!

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sugar-bunny mini egg cookies

~ eatingcookiesinbed ~ Leave a comment

It’s almost Easter. Almost. But you know what’s happening RIGHT NOW? Mini Eggs! The beloved Cadbury bunny is clucking away on TV and Mini Eggs are back on the shelves of grocery stores and pharmacies everywhere! Yum Yum Yum!!! Can you tell I’m excited?

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That’s because these pastel colored beauties are my absolute favorite Easter chocolate. Given my deep and unending love for cookies it was only a matter of time before I would put the two together to create the ultimate Easter themed cookie treat.

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To make these I used my usual recipe for cut-out sugar cookies. I then placed about 2 to 3 cups of Mini Eggs in a large Ziploc bag and had myself a blast smashing them to smithereens with the back of a heavy ice cream scooper!

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I could have used my mini food processor but that only occurred to me once I was already in quite the groove. A mallet or rolling pin would have also done the trick but clearly I have a penchant for the unconventional…

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As I normally do, I rolled the dough out fairly thick because i prefer a slightly softer cookie that I can really sink my teeth into. I kept bake time the same as always and they turned out perfectly! Little bits of shell and tiny chunks of Cadbury chocolate are visible in the dough making the cookies look almost as ridiculously delicious as they taste. Almost.

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