Page 360 - Cupcakes

Cupcake Cousins

This chapter came about by accident. Had I not stored stacks of cupcake pans on
my kitchen counter after the recipe testing had concluded, I would not have
dreamed I could write another chapter. But I kept looking at those pans,
somewhat nostalgically, wondering what I might be doing in the fall with the
kids back in school and the cookbook put to bed. Then the light dawned.

Those pans weren’t just cupcake and muffin pans. No, they were little molds,
vessels for individual portions, and those portions might be custards, frozen
layered desserts, or creamy refrigerated confections.

The fancy desserts of my youth came flashing back: my mother’s chocolate
wafer and whipped cream number. The refrigerated Hershey Bar cake, and those
creamy, easy Key lime desserts with sweetened condensed milk and cream
cheese. These would be perfect made in a cupcake pan, and there might be
others, I thought. What about layered ice cream desserts and trifle-like stacks of
pudding and berries? What about a crème brûlée baked in a cupcake pan?

So we made room for another chapter—with recipes for those days and nights