Confession #1: I was too sick yesterday for my 2nd installment of "Cupcake Friday."
It turned into "Cupcake Saturday." The entire thing is being turned into "Weekend Sweets." Deal with it.
Confession #2: This is the fanciest, nicest champagne we had on-hand. Also the cheapest you can find in the grocery store. Yes, the recipe says to use a "good-quality" champagne, but what is "good-quality" really? Good quality to me is not having to go to the grocery store.
So today I felt well enough to make some cupcakes. Since I'm pregnant (24.5 weeks, wooo hooo!!!!) and haven't had any alcohol for a while, I thought maybe champagne cupcakes would be yummy. I do enjoy spritzers.
This recipe called for whipped egg whites...gross. I am surprised I am not vegan, seriously. Eggs gross me out, especially raw eggs. Do you know what those turn into? And haven't you heard stories of people who have cracked eggs and found baby chicks in there? I have...
But don't worry, I crack eggs very carefully and while holding my breath and standing over the garbage can (not a joke) so that if that ever happens to me, I can quickly discard it.
These eggs were okay. And those stiff peaks look pretty nice.
Butter. The recipe called for margarine. No way.
The usual: flour, baking powder, salt.
Then some sugar of course.
All measured out with my adorable measuring cups. I found these at the Moscow Food Co-Op, but I also just saw them in Food Network Magazine. Just want to say that I got them before they were featured. Because I find cute things like that.
And after I mixed the ingredients, pre-heated the oven, and baked those tiny cakes, I went to check on Jamie who said he wasn't feeling well.
He was napping.
His fever? It was 102.9.
This was about an hour or hour 1/2 after I had given him Tylenol, because his fever then was 103.4.
My poor boy. He gets really high fevers when he is sick, so I don't freak out anymore (his highest was 107 last February, I kid you not. I did freak out then, and my dad and I ran him to the ER. By the time we got there, the ER nurse's thermometer read 105.3. But anyway...)
So Jamie drank some water, slept a little more, and while the cupcakes (and Jamie) were cooling off, Maria and I made some champagne frosting.
And we frosted those suckers.
And because I would probably eat 5 tonight, I decided to box them up. And I think cupcakes look just as cute boxed up and ready to give away as they do when they are freshly frosted.
And Danny, the best husband and daddy ever, made dinner.
A little grilled steak, bruschetta with goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes, brussels sprouts boiled, sauteed and seasoned, and corn.
He loves us.
And now for the cupcake recipe.
I didn't make it up, I got it from mixingbowl.com. I did, though, substitute a few things and the time, but I'll let you know:
Cake Ingredients:
6 egg whites
1 egg yolk
2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 C margarine (I used butter)
1.5 C sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 C good-quality champagne (I used Cook's...)
1. Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks (watch for eggs that have not been fully checked by farmers...)
2. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt
3. In another bowl, beat sugar and butter together until fluffy. Add the vanilla and egg yolk.
4. Alternately add the flour mixture and champagne to the butter mixture.
5. Fold in 1/2 the egg whites....then the other 1/2.
Bake at 350 for approximately 15 - 17 minutes. The recipe is for a cake and it says to bake it for 20 - 25 minutes, but my oven had them ready at about 16. Let them cool completely.
The frosting recipe is just the recipe I use for most of my cupcakes, with champagne added.
Frosting Ingredients:
Butter (usually about a stick and 1/2)
Powdered Sugar (usually about 5 C)
Milk
Champagne
Vanilla
1. Beat the butter until it's fluffy.
2. Add powdered sugar...I usually just keep adding until the texture looks right to me, which is about 5 C
3. Add about 1 tsp vanilla and 2 Tbs champagne
4. Mix well
5. Add enough milk to make the texture spreadable...just eyeball it.
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