Snowflake Cupcakes With (Not) Eat N Park Cookies On Top
I have a history of overachieving when it comes to the cupcakes I make for Alexis to take to school for her birthday. The flowers, the pandas, the High School Musical cupcakes, and the Hello Kitty cupcakes . . . all awesomeness, if I do say so myself. And I do.
This year I scaled things back a bit.
Which is to say, Plan A failed, so I implemented Plan B. Plan B turned out cute, though, so we won't talk about Plan A!
There's really nothing crazy involved with these Winter Wonderland / Snowflake cupcakes. They were simple chocolate cupcakes topped with blue-tinted cream cheese icing. Then I threw some sprinkles on top and finished it all off with a small snowflake sugar cookie.
About the sugar cookies, though. I found the recipe here and hated them. HATED THEM. They taste exactly like Eat N Park cookies. If you are in Pittsburgh, then you know exactly what cookie flavor I speak of. It's a love or hate thing, am I right? It seems that people either love them like Britney loves Cheetos, or are like me and think they're a decent fascimile of cardboard.
Alexis loves them.
I already told you what I think about them.
I still ate something like a dozen of them. They're Eat N Park Smiley Cookies without the hassle of going to Eat N Park! I had to! It's A Thing!
I know. It makes no sense.
But perhaps you are a lover of Eat N Park Smiley Cookies. If that's the case, hooboy do I have the recipe for you! They were actually pretty simple to make as the cookie dough is a good consistency for cut out cookies. It's a little thick and bakes up stiff enough to be used as a cupcake topper (obviously).
Not Eat N Park Smiley Cookies (But Pretty Darn Close)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour and baking powder
2. In a separate larger bowl, combine the butter and sugar with a mixer until it's light and fluffy. Be sure to periodically scrape the sides of the bowl. It took my little hand mixer about four minutes to get the job done.
3. Add the egg and vanilla and continue to mix for another minute or so.
4. Slowly add the dry ingredients, continuing to run the mixer at low speed.
5. Place the dough on the counter and knead it by hand for a few minutes. You want to make sure the flour is thoroughly incorporated.
6. Place the dough in the fridge for one hour.
7. Once the dough has cooled, remove it from the fridge and knead thoroughly until the dough is easy to work with. (It took me about five minutes to get the dough soft enough to roll out.)
8. Roll the dough out, do your cookie cutter thing, lather, rinse, repeat.
9. Bake the cookies at 350 degrees for approximately 8 to 10 minutes.
10. Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheet for about a minute. The carefully move them to a wire rack to cool the rest of the way.
The only thing about these sugar cookies is that they aren't all that . . . sugary. Juts like Eat N Park Smiley Cookies, they require icing to taste right. I adapted the Royal Icing recipe that I found here.
Royal Icing
4 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons meringue powder (you can find it at Michael's, JoAnne's, Hobby Lobby, etc.)
1/2-3/4 cup warm water
1. Combine the powdered sugar and meringue powder in a large mixing bowl.
2. Slowly add the warm water and beat on medium speed until stiff peaks begin to form. Add more powdered sugar or water as necessary to adjust the consistency. You want a "runny" icing if you plan to flood the cookies and a thicker one if you are going to try to draw intricate design with it. (Hint: the bright color on Smiley Cookies is flooded icing while the smile and eyes are done using a much thicker consistency.)
3. Royal Icing hardens when exposed to air, so work quickly and be sure to cover any portion that you don't plan to use immediately.
Recipe
