My cupcake baking this week.
I did two batches of brownie cupcakes last night.
First one was done for a friend of my's birthday today. She loves halloween and since the season is coming up I thought I would incorporate it into the decorations a bit. She is also on a very strict diet currently. Very little fat intake can be had because of the medication she is on, though calories are a little less strict...so this first batch was done with a low fat brownie mix and fat free cream cheese was used to make the icing with low calorie margarine and powered sugar to sweeten and just a bit of Vanilla Extract for taste and just a bit of purple food dye for the color...it's amazing how good they tasted after all the low fat low calorie ingredients. She was SOOO touched that I went through all the trouble so she could have something sweet on her birthday.
The only thing I really noticed that was different with working with the fat free cream cheese was that it was a tad runny after I had mixed it with the sugar, margarine and vanilla extract. That was interesting to decorate on, but I managed to get it done...that and margarine REALLY doesn't want to blend well... They went right into the fridge overnight and the frosting did stiffen up a bit more to my relief.
The next batch was a batch for myself and my son baked the same night (because you certainly cannot bake cupcakes or brownies of any sort and then tell a child that they can't have one...). Regular old fattening brownies with real cream cheese, real butter, real sugar, bright yellow food coloring and a tablespoon of orange extract in the frosting for the chocolate/orange flavor combination which I *love*. Also a Halloween theme here...it's my favorite holiday.
First one was done for a friend of my's birthday today. She loves halloween and since the season is coming up I thought I would incorporate it into the decorations a bit. She is also on a very strict diet currently. Very little fat intake can be had because of the medication she is on, though calories are a little less strict...so this first batch was done with a low fat brownie mix and fat free cream cheese was used to make the icing with low calorie margarine and powered sugar to sweeten and just a bit of Vanilla Extract for taste and just a bit of purple food dye for the color...it's amazing how good they tasted after all the low fat low calorie ingredients. She was SOOO touched that I went through all the trouble so she could have something sweet on her birthday.
The only thing I really noticed that was different with working with the fat free cream cheese was that it was a tad runny after I had mixed it with the sugar, margarine and vanilla extract. That was interesting to decorate on, but I managed to get it done...that and margarine REALLY doesn't want to blend well... They went right into the fridge overnight and the frosting did stiffen up a bit more to my relief.
The next batch was a batch for myself and my son baked the same night (because you certainly cannot bake cupcakes or brownies of any sort and then tell a child that they can't have one...). Regular old fattening brownies with real cream cheese, real butter, real sugar, bright yellow food coloring and a tablespoon of orange extract in the frosting for the chocolate/orange flavor combination which I *love*. Also a Halloween theme here...it's my favorite holiday.