Take 2!

As I was scooping out the 1 1/2 cups of flour I needed for these cupcakes, my mind traveled back to my childhood days of playing with dough. I would sit at the kitchen table with a cutting board, a big pile of flour, add the water, and enjoy creating all sorts of things with that sticky dough. It's funny to think back to that time. My parents probably thought it was a sign that I'd grow up to be a cook or a baker of fine muffins and pies! Instead, I grew up to get my hands messy in thick gobs of paint, rather than dough. I remember one particular day while I was playing with dough, I happened to leave the kitchen for a bit. I came back to discover that my sister and her friends had put shredded cheese in my dough! It had been contaminated and was no longer the texture I liked squishing and pulling. It had chunky pieces of orange cheese that did not belong!

So, this brings me back to our dessert recipe this week. Our first sweet treat on the blog, might I add! My birthday was last weekend and since I was visiting Heather, we decided to make a birthday treat for our weekly recipe. Well...as we started preparing our ingredients, we discovered that the cream cheese filling needed white sugar and we were totally out! What shall a cook do? "We'll just use brown sugar." I assumed Heather knew what she was doing. But, in the same way that the shredded cheese did not belong in my dough, that brown sugar did not belong in that filling. I'm thinking that brown sugar cooks faster or just makes things more likely to burn, because after the appropriate time in the oven, we discovered that the cupcakes were very dark! We tasted one and just weren't sure if it was good or not. Now, if you can't tell whether or not a cupcake is good, then it probably isn't. Seems like every time the sisters cook together, something crazy happens! We decided that we would take a second shot at the cupcakes again on our own. So, this week, I attempted the sweet treat again, but this time following the recipe to a T. Needless to say, they came out much better. Look at the picture below...Now, which one would YOU rather be eating?


With just one bite I could tell the newly baked cupcakes were scrumptious! I brought them to work and they were definitely a big hit!

"Who brought in more sweets? This is NOT good for my waistline!"

"Oooo pretty cupcakes! Who's birthday is it?"

"Mandi, those cupcakes are scrumptious!"

"I can't have any of those! That would defeat my 4 mile walk this morning!"