Brooke had the idea that started it all.
"Let's try a Cupcake War type challenge."
Sure.
First, we set down some rules.
- You may use any ingredients you find in the house
- You may add 1-2 items to our shopping list for your "secret" ingredients
- You may make up to four cupcakes and submit two for judging
- You are allowed to use recipes from the internet or cookbook
- I would provide a batch of yellow cake batter and another of chocolate cake batter
- I would provide a basic buttercream frosting for you to use
- No time limit, but at some point we will say the judging will be happening soon.
On Saturday afternoon, from about 2-5 (!) every square inch of our kitchen counters filled with ingredients, bowls, spatulas, muffin pans, cooling rack, mixers, pans, etc., etc.
Seriously, we used more dishes for making 9 cupcakes than I used to make Thanksgiving dinner. Every bowl in the kitchen was dirty and most of the silverware.
The
beginning
of
inspiration.
Eli thought that two handed mixing was somehow more efficient. This was the beginning of his Cookies'n'Cream cupcake and his raspberry cupcake.
(the package of oreos just might have been completely consumed in one afternoon)
The beauty that followed was so fun. This was Faith's Snicker bar cupcake (no Snicker bars were harmed in the creating of this cupcake).
Chocolate cupcake with caramel and peanut filling, peanut butter frosting topped with chocolate ganache and chopped nuts.
Nathan's finished product.
A birthday confetti cupcake and a nutella caramel cupcake
Eli's creations.
Cookies 'n' Cream and a Raspberry cupcake
(with raspberries in the cupcake and topped with whipped cream and fresh raspberries)
Faith made three, but submitted the two edge ones for judging.
An apple, peanut caramel cupcake and the Snickers cupcake.
She also made a cinnamon roll cupcake.
Somehow, we missed getting pictures of Brooke's finished cupcakes. They were adorable, too. One was a hot chocolate cupcake that had cocoa mix in the batter and peppermint frosting with mini marshmallows. It looked just like a mini cup of cocoa. She also made a S'mores cupcake that might have been my favorite. It had a layer of graham cracker as the base an then chocolate cupcake with marshmallow frosting and topped with a toasted marshmallow.
Maybe we should have also taken a picture of the disaster our kitchen was at the end of this. We moved to the dining room for pictures to spare our minds the memory of it.
It was a fun, beautiful, messy, delicious day.
Something we don't do often enough. I think as our kids get older and age out of some of the activities that were part of Christmas, and life, for so long, I have hard time finding suitable replacements. This took some work to plan for (and involved a big chunk of our weekend and three trips to the store for items I kept overlooking . . .) but it was so worth it.
Of course, lots of learning happened. Problem solving, honing baking skills, working together to make the space and supplies work for everyone. I was so thankful that they somehow enjoyed this activity without bickering, but all worked together to help each other's cupcakes be the best as well.
I don't know if this is the start of a new Christmas tradition or not, but it was a bright spot in the dreary days of monotony right now, and an adventure that will be the topic of conversation for a while.
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