Hi-Hat Cupcakes

My oldest granddaughter has expressed an interest in baking, especially cupcakes.  A few months ago I rounded up all my cupcake cookbooks and gave them to her. Her Mom doesn't do much baking so I knew she needed a little guidance from Nana to get started.  An opportunity to bake together came up recently when her Mom had a hair appointment. Together with her little sister, we rounded up all the baking supplies we needed for these cupcakes and gathered in my kitchen for our first baking lesson.

These cupcakes look a lot harder to make than they are.  There is cake, frosting, and chocolate coating, but all are easy to make.  We mixed and baked the cupcakes.  While they were cooling, we made the frosting.  After piping the frosting they needed to be refrigerated for a while.  That gave us the time to make the chocolate dip and start on washing the dishes (learning how to clean up is an essential part of baking!) We were in and out of the kitchen in about 2 hours. 

Of course, the girls loved the cupcakes!  What child wouldn't?  Chocolate cake, marshmallow-type frosting, dipped in melted chocolate, what's not to like about that?  I enjoyed teaching them and listening to their chatter.  You learn so much about a child when you have the opportunity to just let the conversation flow, rather than asking them direct questions. They were very proud of their creations and couldn't wait to take them on their trip to the mountains later that day. I look forward to our next baking day!

The recipe comes from Martha Stewart.  There was a video showing how she made these so the girls watched this before we got started.  I'm not sure that was a good idea. They were a little disappointed that their creations weren't as high and pretty as Martha's.  Some of our frosting fell off in the chocolate, which was frustrating them. My youngest granddaughter said, "that Martha must make these a lot because hers are perfect!" We'll get there, girls!

Learning how to use a piping bag.

Dipping into the chocolate.

The recipe can be found here.

The frosting must be really stiff in order to hold its shape!