Week Fourteen -- Alien Cupcakes and Fruit Kabobs

More often than not the image of what we’re going to make doesn’t match up with what we actually make. This week was a prime example of this. My son’s teacher sent an email asking if we could send treats for Pumpkin Day. Well, sure. So, after much discussion we decided to make alien cupcakes and fruit kabobs because nothing says Pumpkin Say like a bunch of fruit on a stick and a weird aliens made out of fluorescent green frosting and Twizzlers.

And the image I had of all of this, of course, came from Martha Stewart. (That was your first problem, you say.) So, we go to the store and buy a chocolate cake mix – no, Martha didn’t recommend this – obviously. And we buy a can of vanilla frosting (also not very M.S.). We searched for the green taffy that she used, but all we found were bags of multicolored taffy. And I’m thinking to make 24 cupcakes, we’ll need to buy about eleven bags, so we kept looking. Luckily Twizzlers now has rainbow colored licorice (which I’m not entirely sure can actually be called licorice. (Seriously.) I already had some giant gumdrops at home (courtesy of Whole Foods – try the Acai berry ones. Yum).

So, here’s what we did:

1.       Mix cake mix according to the package directions. I’m sorry. I know. But, there it is.

2.       Pour the mix evenly into a lined cupcake pan. We filled them about ¾ full. I like a puffy cupcake.

3.       Bake according to the directions. Gotta love Duncan Hines.

4.       While the cupcakes baked, we mixed up some acid green frosting, sliced the gumdrops in half and sliced the Twizzlers into thirds.

5.       Cool the cupcakes. Frost. Decorate. Done. (Take that M.S.)

The fruit kabobs are also way easy. I would have to say I probably wouldn’t do these for the under six crowd. Halloween just isn’t going to be as much fun if someone gets a skewer in the eye. Buy fruit, wash, cut as appropriate, slide the fruit onto the skewers. We also used marshmallows, but beware if you want to do this. Add the marshmallows just before you serve them. They get mushy.

That’s it. Like I said, our photos probably more realistically reflect a ten-year-old and his crazy mom’s abilities than the beautiful photos that M.S. turns out. I like to lower the bar. It makes it easier to step over it.

Week Thirteen -- Apple Pie in an Apple

An Apple Pie in an Apple is all kinds of genius. First of all you can convince yourself that it is fairly healthy. After all it’s an apple! Second, it’s really good.

Ingredients:

Four apples (We used Granny Smith, but I imagine any apple would do.)
Granulated sugar to taste. We ended up using approximately ½ a cup.
2T of unsalted butter
2T of flour
2t of ground cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg (optional)
One round of prepared pie dough.

What You Do:

·         Peel and core the apples.
·          Slice off the top ½ inch of the apples.
·          If you have a melon baller tool, this next step is easy. If not, it’s a little more complicated, but not much. Carve your apple into a bowl shape, being careful not to break through the walls of the apples. Reserve the chopped apple bits.
·         Place the carved apples on a parchment lined baking sheet.
·         Place the chopped apples, flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg into a bowl and toss gently.
·         Stuff the hollowed out apples with the apple bits and top with ½ T of butter. (Be sure to really overstuff the apples since it will all cook down in the oven.)
·         Using a large round cookie cutter, an empty jar or a knife, slice your dough into four rounds.
·         Top each apple with a round of dough and cut slashes in the dough to vent any steam.
Bake the apples at 350 degrees for approximately 45 minutes or until the apples are soft and the crusts are golden.

You could serve these with ice cream or whipped cream, but we enjoyed them plain.