Mini Cupcake Pies - (cake that looks like pie)

My daughter's birthday was last month, and while all the girls are getting older and their theme parties are a bit more chill, I always still try to make a fun cake for their birthday.  She was just going to have some friends come over to play video games, and didn't have a particular theme in mind. Then I realized that she plays a game on the computer where they make virtual pies all day. I had this idea to make cupcakes look like miniature pies.  We searched around on Pinterest and came up with a few ideas to base our cake/pies on.  They turned out super cute!!

Mini Cupcake Pies are probably the cutest thing ever!

 
All you need are:

24 cooked, cooled cupcakes (from a box or from scratch)
Silver cupcake liners (to look like pie pans)
1 large bag of mini MnM's, colors sorted
2 tubs of store bought frosting (or make your own butter cream)
Unsweetened cocoa power
Yellow food dye Wilton basket weave tips (47 for cupcakes or 1D for larger cake pies)

Bake 24 cupcakes and let cool completely. 

For the frosting you can make your own or a few cans of store bought vanilla, though in hindsight the homemade buttercream might set up firmer around the edges of the "pie".

Cake, that looks like tiny pies. Adorable!

To your white frosting, place a 1/2 teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powered and a few drops of yellow food dye into the frosting until you get a "pie crust" type color. Add small amounts of cocoa as needed.

Unsweetened cocoa powder and yellow food dye will give you frosting a "pie crust" peachy color

Frost each cupcake with a bit of the crust colored frosting 

It's sort of an odd shade, a light skin color, or peachy/brown

Then carefully place tiny MnM's in one color (red for "cherry", blue for "blueberry", etc.) My teen had fun doing this.  Once you get the top fully covered in mini MnM's then you are going to pipe a lattice (we used Wilton basket weave tip 47) a few strips one way, 

It looks like little blueberries under a lattice crust

Then a few stripes the opposite way.  Don't worry about the edges, you can cover that up with a little "ruffle" type edging to make it look like a real little pie crust.

Messy edges will be covered up with the next stop

Next, go around the edges of the cupcake with the same tip in a ruffly "edge of the pie" type pattern, mostly a wave pattern.

Blueberry pie! The first time we did this, we used store bought frosting and it got a little warm, but still did an okay effect

Next try a few more colors of "pie filling"

Ooo cherry pie!  We ended doing 4 mini pies of each color

For the orange and yellow MnM's (lemon and pumpkin) pie, we didn't do lattice work for those, and thought they would look nicer with a little blob of white "whipped cream" (white frosting pipped with a star tip).

Twist on the star  tip as you pull up to get that "dollop" look

These tiny pies started to look pretty good as we did the different flavors

Did someone order a chocolate mini pie cupcake?

We put a variety on a sheet pan and it turned out to be a great way to display them.

The teens went gaga over these little beauties.

My middle was turning 14.  These number candles fit in one pie perfectly

We had a little left over batter, so I decided to pour it into a full-sized pie pan and then we whipped up a pretend pumpkin pie, which was the birthday girl's favorite pie in the fall.  It looked pretty realistic when we were done. (Note: We took the extra pie crust frosting, which already had that brown crust hue, separated it and put red and yellow food coloring in it until it resembled a pumpkin color). More white dollops of white frosting with the flower tip to give it some flair.

Fake pumpkin pie cake... looks pretty realistic

Here it is all lit up with candlelight

Happy pumpkin pie funfetti cake to you...

See, it really was cake all along.

Great for any holiday, even April Fools!

I hope you liked our little fake out fun food here.  We had a blast making these together, and there's not a ton of activities you can do with your teen where they are chatting and enjoying themselves making tiny food.

Turkey Bread Rolls

Last year we were in charge of bringing rolls to Thanksgiving. After a bit of searching, we came across these cute little turkey rolls that the girls wanted to make. Feast your eyes (pun intended) on: TURKEY BREAD ROLLS

Turkey bread rolls are beautiful... fun to make... AND delicious!

Are these adorable or what?  The best part is the the kids can help make them!

The nice thing about these rolls, is that you can make them from frozen pre-made bread dough, which is great if you are busy with other Thanksgiving day prep. We bought the 5 pack of Rhodes frozen bread loaves and used them to make our turkeys.

One thawed Rhodes bread dough loaf.

The original recipe from the Rhodes kids baking blog (not there now) wanted you to defrost the dough over night in the fridge in a greased covered container or some sprayed wax paper and then roll them out into a circle...

then cut the circle into 6 wedges.  

However, I found it very difficult to get the dough to WANT to be rolled from an oblong shape into a round shape.

New solution!  It's easier AND it makes more sense:
Roll the dough out, elongating out the original "loaf" shape.

Expanding the already there "loaf" shape was much easier!  And makes more turkey rolls per loaf.

Now take your pizza cutter and cut zig-zag triangles until you have 9 wedges.  Each dough loaf will make 9 turkeys!

One loaf = 9 turkey rolls.  Those odd shapes at the end you can form into a wedge shape later, because it's dough.

Once you have your wedges, take some kitchen scissors and snip some 1 inch cuts in the wide end of the triangle to make the tail feathers.

Snip one inch down and about one inch wide strips.  Four cuts makes 5 "feathers".

Next, in a greased muffin tin, place the triangle wedge down in the center of the muffin creator.  The "tail feathers", or the wide part of the triangle you snipped cuts into should go up the side of the muffin tin and a little over the side.  The "beak" or pointy end of the dough should go up the other side of the muffin cup and poke out of the top.

You kind of cram the dough down to the bottom of the muffin tin, then spread out the feathers and turkey head

Since these overflow out of the cup, we ended up placing them in every other cup, so they'd have a chance to rise and bake. 

I love my larger 24 muffin cup pan, it's great for a million birthday cupcakes, or these!

 Place covered in a warm place and let them rise for an hour.

Shhh - rising bread taking place

Once they are a little puffier, it's time to bake. Place in an oven at 350º for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. 

Cute lil' turkey rolls

FYI - Since the original link isn't there (I called Rhodes today to let them know, so maybe they will re post it) but check them at 20 min see if they need more time.

Close up from our first batch

Brush with a bit of butter while they are still warm.

You've heard of ducks in a row... these are turkeys in a row

They turned out really cute and the girls had a blast making them!

Oh this is funny. The first loaf we did, where there was only six wedges from a circle, the turkeys were HUGE and blew up like fat little monsters. Ha.

These turkeys are here to PUMP... YOU UP!

(We put those guys at the very bottom of the bowl and left the prettiest ones on top).

Such a great little baking project.  You can make these ahead of time and heat them up on the big day wrapped in some foil while the other sides are heating up and the turkey is resting. 

The kids will love to contribute to the holiday festivities. Not only do they get to help with the food prep BUT also impress their cousins on their baking prowess.

A big bowl O' turkey rolls for you and yours.

Let me know if you make this with your kids, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Enjoy!

Easy Ham Egg and Cheese Cups

When life gives you an extra dozen eggs, you make... lemonade?  Well, close, you make something for dinner with eggs of course.  Something new, but quick and easy (preferably), and so you suddenly remember one of those cooking videos that fly by on Facebook every once in a while and you think yes, I am going to TRY that tonight! This recipe couldn't be any easier, with three main ingredients and some seasonings to taste. Make them for breakfast before school!  Make them for dinner! I give you: Ham, Egg, and Cheese cups.

Ham, cheese and egg cups, a quick easy breakfast or a super fast dinner!

You will need (brace yourself here)
Ham
Eggs
Shredded cheese
Muffin pan (greased with cooking spray)
Salt/Pepper/Seasoned salt
Parsley (optional) 

Muffin tin pan, greased

Place slices of ham (we had thin sliced lunch meat) in the bottom of a greased muffin tray. I only did one slice this first time out, Next time I will use bigger pieces or maybe 2 pieces of ham

The girls thought these looked like flowers.  Next time I'll add two pieces to make a slightly larger holder for the egg

Sprinkle some shredded cheddar cheese in the bottom of the ham cups.

Then crack one egg in each muffin space

The eggs filled the muffin cup all the way to the top, luckily they stayed in place

Season with salt, pepper or seasoning salt

I wasn't sure if these would be well liked, so we just made a few to try out the first time

Bake for 12-15 minutes.

That's it!

(Note the video stated 15 minutes, which left us with almost solid yokes, while reading the printed recipe said 12-15 minutes).  Next time I will back off the time a few minutes to get a slightly runnier center.  

Baked ham egg and cheese cups

Add a sprinkle of parsley to make it loo fancy... and there you have it. 

Pop these babies out of the muffin tin and plate up with some biscuits and fruit.

Pretty and delicious! Not to mention low carb and keto friendly too if you eat them alone.

I was surprised even my child that is not that crazy about eggs ate this and asked for a second one! 

The ham baked up nicely into a thin, crispy "shell" around the edge, and it tasted very much like prosciutto.

15 minutes was a little too long for our liking but the flavors were great. Next time 12 or 13 minutes I'm thinking.

This was so easy the kids want to make it by themselves next time, so that's a big win win for us.  Besides being great for breakfast or a quick dinner, these would also be great if you are cooking for a crowd.  Just pop in several muffin trays and you could be cooking a dozen breakfasts at once!  Enjoy!

Mini Corn Dogs

So what is the best part about going to a state or county fair?  Well besides the scones, elephant ears, people watchin' and onion burgers, the main draw around these parts are corn dogs, aptly named "Krusty Pups".  SO GOOD.  However, since my gallbladder and I parted ways a few years back, corn dog and hot dogs and I are not really on speaking terms any more. I recently found out that if I buy the swanky nitrate free hot dogs, I do not get the reaction I once would get.  This gave me a glimmer of HOPE that once again there could be a golden brown crusty dog of corn in my near future!

Mini corn dogs... once only a dream for a galbladder-less girl, now a new reality!

So what you need for this recipe is:

1 package of bun length hotdogs
16 skewers or long sucker sticks
Several cups of oil (your choice, we did vegetable oil)  

Corn dog batter: Batter recipe taken from here at Life Made Simple

3/4 cup yellow corn meal
3/4 cup flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 Tablespoons honey
3/4 cup buttermilk  * note we did a substitute
2 tsp vegetable oil

(Printable recipe at the end)

Take your bun length hotdogs...

I used to have buy the special Angus beef with no nitrates, but Oscar Mayer recently changed all their dogs to nitrate free!

and cut them in half

Bun length dogs cut in half make the perfect length for min dogs

I had bamboo skewers on hand that I cut in half, but you can also use lollypop sticks or chopsticks.  Push each half of the hotdog far up each stick. 

Meat on sticks....

Pat dry with a paper towel so each dog is dry to the touch (and will help the batter stick to the dog) 

In a bowl mix the corn meal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Add the beaten egg, honey, buttermilk (2 tsp of vinegar to 3/4 cup of milk and let it sit for 5 minutes before adding), and vegetable oil.

 
Whisk together with the dry ingredients to make a thick batter.

Corn dog batter has a great smell to it!

Heat the oil up to 350º.  We had a candy thermometer on the side of the pot.  We also did not want to waste a ton of oil, (or stink up the house) so we used our smallest pot and filled it up a few inches to cover at least half the hotdog. 

 Pour the batter into a tall cup

Pre-dipping action

Dip the half of hot dog slowly in the batter, twisting as you pull up

Post dipping action

 Place immediately into the 350º oil and turn the temp on the oil down

Oh my gosh, it's working!

 Our pot was very small, we could only fit in two at a time

Two little pups spinning around in the oil

 Fry each dog for 2-3 minutes until golden brown all over

My 12-year-old wanted to help her dad

We got so excited when we thought these started to look like REAL corn dogs!!

Let them dry off on a paper towel to help wick off the extra oil

We were seriously impressed at this point.

Since we were making only a few at a time, we placed the finished pups on a pizza pan in a low temp oven to keep warm and crisp whilst we fried up the others.

Mini corn dogs... YUM

Soon we had a big ol' pile of golden Krusty Pups to behold.

Activate smell-o-vision here

All we had to do now was dig in!

Must have mustard.  It's the law.

A little scroll of mustard, some fresh corn on the cob and watermelon and this instantly became the new family favorite!

The batter was crunchy on the outside, sweet and fluffy on the inside.

Yum!  I think next time I will go with the smooth ended lollypop sticks instead of the skewers, just so the kids won't have that jabby point there at the end of the corn dog, other than that, we are SO going to add this to our summer dinner line up every once in a while.  So don't be afraid to try these in the near future, we were pleasantly surprised they were not that hard to make - and SUPER fun and delicious.

Mini corn dogs want to get into your belly today!

Here's the link to a printable recipe.  Enjoy.