Cream Egg Cups

I love cream eggs.  Every year, I buy quite a few.  My friend, Jen, from The Elka Almanac, posted this link on my facebook.  This combines the sugary center of the cream egg and chocolate chip cookies.  I thought this was a great idea.

I started off with my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I loaded them into cupcake liners so they'd stay together, and so I didn't have to spray down muffin pans and try to pry these cookie cups out.  Two scoops in each cup did it.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Once the cups are out of the oven and cooled it's time to give them a spot for the cream to rest.  I used a shot glass to accomplish this.

Now for the filling.  Combine 1/2 cup light corn syrup with 1/4 cup softened unsalted butter and 1 tsp vanilla extract.

Next mix in some powdered sugar, about 3 cups of it.

Set aside 1/3 of this cream mix, and dye it yellow.  One drop should do it.

Time to fill them up.  First the white cream, followed by a small dollop of the yellow.

Looks like a sweet toad in the hole.

Tastes good too!  Thank you Jen for showing me this recipe!

Getting Baked.

After Christmas, I bought a book.  Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito is a recipe book filled with recipes from their bakery "Baked" in Brooklyn.  This is full of twists on classics, as well as baked items that are unique, like the Chocolate Malt Ball Cake.

This week as Tim's father's birthday.  I was put in charge of the dessert for his celebration dinner.  I decided to make something from Baked, so I decided on the banana cupcakes.

First, sift together 2 3/4 cups flour with 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt.  Set aside.

Beat together 1 stick of butter with 1/4 cup vegetable shortening.

Add 2 tsp vanilla extract with 1 3/4 cup of white sugar.  Beat to combine.

Add 2 eggs and beat to combine.

Now for the bananas.

Mash them up.

Add to the mixture.

Beat to combine.

We'll need a bit more liquid before we add the dry stuff, and that comes from buttermilk.  1/2 a cup.

Alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk 3 times, starting and ending with flour (so flour, milk, flour, milk, flour).

Bake in a 325 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Time for the icing.  Baked included a vanilla pastry cream to slather on top, but I didn't have the ingredients for it.  I decided to make a vanilla infused cream cheese frosting.  I started with one 8 oz pack of plain cream cheese and added about a tablespoon of vanilla extract.

After beating this together, I slowly started adding about 1 cup of powdered sugar.

A lot sweeter than I normally make it, but it worked with the vanilla.

Once the cupcakes are out of the oven and cooled, it's time to ice and decorate.

These tasted like banana pudding after the application of the icing.  I'll call this one a success!

Enjoy!