April Fool's Day

I had fun making these cupcakes today.  Once again, I had my little 4-year old helper in the kitchen with me when I made these- he LOVED it!!  (We did these while the older kids were at school, to surprise them when they came home).  Thanks to the book, "Hello, Cupcake", I have access to tons of cute ideas for creative cupcakes, and so many ideas for April Fool's!  These are "Spaghetti & Meatballs" cupcakes- but everything on them is made of something sweet- there's a cupcake, topped with "spaghetti" frosting, strawberry jam for the tomato sauce, a Ferrero Rocher chocolate for the meatball, and white chocolate grated with my microplaner for the Parmesan cheese on top!  (A cheese grater would also work, I think). 

Vegetarian cupcake eater?  Have picky eaters in your house, who prefer to just have plain spaghetti with parmesan?  (No sauce, and no meatballs?)  Well, we have cupcakes for those eaters, too!  (See below.  Actually, I just ran out of the chocolate "meatballs", lol, and was too lazy to do more jam). 

Spaghetti & Meatballs Cupcakes

from "Hello, Cupcake"

10-12 vanilla cupcakes (a recipe suggestion is below)

2 cups vanilla frosting (you will have some leftover)

1/4- 1/2 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder (add smaller amount first, and add more if needed)
3 drops yellow food coloring
11-13 hazelnut chocolates (Ferrero Rocher), unwrapped
3/4 cup strawberry preserves, warmed for 5 seconds in microwave and whisked
2 tablespoons grated white chocolate (I just grated some over each cupcake)

1. Tint the vanilla frosting with the cocoa powder and yellow food coloring and spread a thin layer on top of the cupcakes. Arrange the cupcakes on a serving platter so that they are touching.

2. Spoon the remaining frosting into a ziplock bag.  Press out the excess air and seal the bag. Snip a 1/8-inch corner from the bag.  (Or, use a piping bag and tip.  I used a small Wilton tip, I think it was number 3.  It was either 2 or 3; use what looks right to you (how big you want your spaghetti to be).)  Pipe the frosting all over the cupcakes to make the spaghetti, piling it high and allowing some of the spaghetti to hang over the edges.

3. Place the hazelnut chocolates and the strawberry preserves in a medium bowl and toss to coat. Spoon some of the preserves on top of the cupcakes. Place 1 hazelnut chocolate on each cupcake and 1 on the platter (if desired... I didn't have enough). Top the cupcakes with the remaining strawberry preserves. Sprinkle with the grated white chocolate.

I used this recipe for the cupcakes only, and left out the lemon so I would have vanilla cupcakes.  I was out of sour cream, but I did have some plain, full-fat Greek-style yogurt on hand, so I used that.  These cupcakes were just delightful.... light, flavorful, great, soft texture, etc.  This might be my go-to recipe for vanilla cupcakes from now on, and I love the use of yogurt.  I have made the recipe stated the original way, with lemon zest and lemon frosting, and they're wonderful that way as well.  When I made these today, I cut the recipe in half, and it still made 15 cupcakes!  Lol.  Double the recipe below if you want 30.

Yogurt Cupcakes
Adapted from Allrecipes
Makes 15 cupcakes

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain, Greek-style yogurt, or sour cream

1.  Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line 15 muffin cups with paper liners.

2.  In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla; mix well. Combine dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture alternately with Greek yogurt sour cream (batter will be thick). Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups with 1/4 cup of batter.

3.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. 

**This post and photos are property of http://dishingwithdish.blogspot.com/ **