I have been thinking for quite a while about making a mini pie inside a cupcake. My favorite fruit pie is by far strawberry so I HAD to make it. Last week, a coworker asked me to make plain chocolate cupcakes for someone else whose birthday it was. I decided this was my opportunity to make the pies inside, as extra cupcakes that she didn't specifically request. I doubled my chocolate cake recipe and made 28 plan cupcakes and the leftover batter ended up making 14 cupcakes with pies in them (I used large cups). I took them all to school and they were all gone by the time I left. Unfortunately, this meant my mom, neighbor (who spotted me some corn syrup for them) and former coworkers I saw that night missed out.
I had planned on taking today off from work as a much needed break, plus I wanted to see my former students on Valentine's Day (my school celebrated on Friday). So, I decided to make vanilla cupcakes today with mini pies inside and save one each for my mom and neighbor and take the rest to my former coworkers. This may be my favorite cupcake I have made. So delicious.
I first had to make the pies. I used my favorite recipe from the place I worked 2 summers in their Bake Shop. The difference from mine and making it there is they use lard and I use shortening. Very easy, and since it was fresh, it was super easy to roll out. I used a circle cutter of about 2 in diameter.
I formed each circle to fit into mini cupcake cups. I forked the bottom and popped them into a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes. This may have been too long. When I did them last week, I checked on them after 5 minutes by pulling them out and put them back in for 5 more and it was perfect. Not stopping in the middle, 10 minutes was too long. Try 8.
See the few that are overcooked? :(
Next, I cut up strawberries into tiny pieces and filled each crust with as many as fit. I used 1 cup of small pieces of strawberry to fill 24 crusts.
I then had to make the gelatin stuff. This involved corn starch, cold water, corn syrup, sugar and strawberry Jello. Nice and thick (the recipe said to cook on low stirring constantly for 5-6 minutes--this did not work the first time I did it. I had to cook on medium, put the lid on until very hot, then stir occasionally until clear and thick.)
Next up, I made my favorite vanilla cupcake batter. I put a rounded tablespoon scoop of batter into each of 15 large sized cupcake cups (you can see they are taller than the pan).
Then, gently placed the mini pies on top of the batter.
I then placed an even tablespoon scoop of batter on top of the pies. If there's leftover batter, I spread it between them so they all seemed even. I then baked the cupcakes until my cake tester came out clean when stuck into the side not with a pie, and the top sprung back when gently pushed, about 20 minutes.
As you can see, some didn't quite have enough batter on top as you could see the pie peeking out.
I used this recipe for my frosting. I am not a huge cream cheese frosting fan, but I liked this recipe. Also, I thought the whipped cream in it fit with the pie inside. I used my normal bag and tip to pipe rosettes ontop and sprinkled with some red sprinkles, because after all, it IS Valentine's Day.
I decided I had to eat the one whose crust you could see on the top--the pie ended up tilted. Oh well, was delicious!
