Page 194 - Cupcakes

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Grape juice

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Party favors: Eye patches; beads; hoop
earrings; chocolate gold coins; fake tattoos

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Activities: Treasure hunt

3. Bake the cupcakes until they are lightly golden and spring back when lightly
pressed with your finger, 14 to 16 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and
place them on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the
edges of the cupcake liners, lift the cupcakes up from the bottoms of the cups
using the end of the knife, and pick them out of the cups carefully with your

fingertips. Place them on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes before frosting.

4. Meanwhile, prepare the frosting. Place a heaping tablespoon of frosting on
each cupcake and spread it out with a short metal spatula or a spoon, taking care
to cover the tops completely. With a white decorating pen or melted white
chocolate in a squeeze bottle, pipe an X on top of each cupcake. The cupcakes
are ready to serve.

VARIATION Berried Treasure Cakes:

Excuse the play on words, but I could not resist omitting the candy and placing a
quarter of a large strawberry on top of the batter before it went into the oven. If it
works, I’ve got a real “berried treasure,” I thought. Well, it did, and beautifully. I
frosted the results with dark chocolate frosting, but you might enjoy a lighter,
more pastel Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting (page 341) instead.

Store these cupcakes, in a cake saver or under a glass dome, at room
temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Or freeze
them, wrapped in aluminum foil or in a cake saver, for up to 6 months. Thaw the

cupcakes overnight in the refrigerator before serving.