She's My Cherry Pie Cupcakes

Even the best of ideas can be lost in development, but on the flip side they actually can turn out pretty smashingly good with a few tweaks. So with the 4th of July being yesterday I was feeling extra patriotic so I thought what is more patriotic than Cherry Pie (ok so maybe apple, but I didn’t feel like cutting up apples today) and Cupcakes (of course cupcakes, it is a religion at this point). So I set out to make She’s My Cherry Pie Cupcakes with the thought that I would make a simple cupcake, (trying a new recipie…no I didn’t make the cupcakes from a box this time, but probably won’t try it this way again unless I’m really trying to impress someone) with cherry pie filling on top and a small lattice of pie crust to mold over the top of the cherry topped cupcake. Sounds simple enough right? Well yes and no. The cupcake recipie was easy to make but the final outcome wasn’t the nice fluffy cupcakes that I am used to producing. After I got the cupcakes out I realized that the cherry pie filling wasn’t going to stick without a glue, so I added canned cream cheese frosting pretty thickly…then I was able to add some of the cherries and the glaze from the cherry pie filling can and they stuck to the frosting. So that all sounds pretty simple huh? And it was…where I had a problem was my lattice pie crust. I made the pie crust (yes from scratch using lard, egg, vinegar, flour and water…just like my mom does) and then cut it into strips and laid out my lattice work on the counter, problem was it was really hard to cut the circles (a biscuit cutter would have been great but of course I didn’t have one of those), so I scrapped the circles of lattice and just baked my little strips and then added them in an abstract way on top of the cherries. Now did the cupcakes look cute? Yes they looked very cute and very American. Where the cupcakes yummy? Yes they were but tasted more like a cherry cheese cake because of the cream cheese frosting and the cherries. Moral of the story…you can make them, they are cute…but I wouldn’t take the time to make pie crust, let it chill in the humidity, roll it out, cut it into strips, bake the strips, let them cool and then add them to the cupcakes. Traveling Cowgirl Code: When your loop doesn't go on smooth over the head, remember that all you need to be concerned with is beef in the loop...and you never know when you might have created a DIFFERENT recipe…Cheery, Cherry Cheesecake Cupcakes.