cupcake wars: the 9-year-old’s version

This past week I made an accidental discovery that has proved to be life-changing for our family TV dynamic.

I found a food channel that shows “Cupcake Wars” almost non-stop. From the teenager to the preschooler, all five of our kids come into complete agreement and (almost) total silence while watching this show. Who’d have guessed? It must be my Southern gene pool shining through. I do come from a family of serious bakers. My recipe collection contains pies, cobblers, stacks of cakes, candies and more cookies than I can count. So really, it should have come as no surprise when my 9-year-old daughter handed me a two page baking diagram for 72 cupcakes in 6 different flavors with color combinations and decorating designs.

I managed to convince her and her younger sister (chief cupcake assistant) that we would have to wait until 1) they’d done their chores and 2) mommy checked what ingredients were actually in the house. That lasted until the following morning. At 7:58 am “everything” was all ready for the cupcake making. Dressed in the proper attire with hands washed, my two young girls were ready for business. They even made a display unit for their creations! I was able to whittle the options down to 3 cupcake flavors ( chef’s preferences are in italics):

"Mmmm, smells lemony!" - the chef

lemon-glazed yellow cake topped with lemon zest buttercream icing in the green cups,

"If you're out of coffee in the morning, you can just eat one of these!" - the chef

chocolate-chip coffee cake iced with mocha buttercream in the blue cups,

"There's a surprise inside! tee-hee" - the chef

 and whipped-cream filled chocolate sponge topped with a fondant flower in the pink cups.

"I want to eat them all. (!) I mean, one of each PLEASE " - the chef

Just about all 48 cupcakes were consumed trying to determine which one was the winner. (We had friends and family over to set up for the church barbecue) In the end, the judges could not decide so it was a three-way tie for first place. Hooray!

we're the professional judges here