A Tribute To A Classic…Twinkie Cupcakes

I haven’t blogged in a while and I blame a new school year for the kids, a clingy baby and a new addiction to Pinterest! Don’t know what Pinterest is? Look it up, you’ll get just as addicted as I’ve become…you’re welcome!! In whatever free time I stumble upon (which is rare), I’m either in the kitchen or on the computer…so-here-goes…

TWINKIE: a tasty cream-filled pastry made from god-knows-what; known to have a shelf life of forever; if there was a nuclear war the only things to survive would be twinkies and cockroaches…thank you, Urban Dictionary!!

The hubby hasn’t had a Twinkie in years…YEARS, I say, due to the fact that he consumed a great amount of them while a young fobby child. He got tired of them and pretty much couldn’t stand the suckers.  I was aware of this and STILL married him, I know, right?! One day, he asks me to MAKE Twinkies. Shocked as I was, I of course took it to another level…and so, the Twinkie cupcake was born!!

The cake part of the recipe was adapted from Tasty Kitchen. For the cream filling part, I literally conjured this up in my mind as I prepared them! I was going for a light and creamy filling but with a cream cheese taste. (forgive me)

Ingredients for the cake:

1 box yellow or butter cake mix

1 cup milk

½ cup melted butter

¼ cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

⅛ teaspoon baking powder

3 eggs

Ingredients for the cream filling:

1 tub of Cool Whip

1 8oz package of softened cream cheese

1 cup powdered sugar (you can always add more if you want it to be sweeter)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°. Line each cupcake pan with a paper liner. Combine all cupcake ingredients and mix on low speed until combined. Mix at medium speed for 2 minutes until smooth. Fill cupcake liners half full. Bake for 12-13 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and allow to cool completely.

Prepare the filling by adding the powdered sugar to the softened cream cheese. Once mixed well, fold the Cool Whip into the cream cheese mix. Fill a decorating bag with the filling. (You can use any size tip, I used the star shape) Insert tip into the center of the cooled cupcake and squeeze bag to fill the cupcake with 1-2 tablespoons of filling. The cupcake will expand just a bit. Remove the tip from the cupcake and top off by swirling some frosting on the top of each cupcake. Repeat until all cupcakes are filled and decorated.

My little ones and the hubby LOVED them and it’s safe to say that it won’t be too long before I make these again! Please enjoy and share with your loved ones!!

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“This @#$% is bananas B-A-N-A-N-A-S”

Turon is a popular snack or dessert, where ripe plantains are sliced and then wrapped in lumpia wrapper (a thin rice paper) and deep-fried. Turon is then finished off with a brown sugar glaze.

Turon

I freakin’ love turon and ALWAYS look for it at family parties unless I bring them myself.  I love the sweetness of that sugar glaze along with the savoriness of the banana. And I don’t really mind the little crumbs that fall into my cleavage after biting into one! When you have free time like myself, your mind wanders about the different variations of turon out there. In this version, I used wonton wrapper  instead of lumpia wrapper, since I was trying to go for a banana wonton-esque crispiness. After slicing the bananas, I coated them in sugar and brown sugar to make it extra-sweet. Lastly, instead of the brown sugar glaze, I topped it off with some powdered sugar. They came out great but needed to be eaten ASAP since wonton wrappers absorb a lot of oil and get soggy quick. They came out pretty small but cute things do come in small packages! Enjoy!!

ingredients

sliced plantains

finished turon

Ingredients:

1 ripe plantain

1 pack of wonton wrappers

1tbsp. sugar

1tbsp. brown sugar

cooking oil for frying

powdered sugar

Directions:

Slice plantains then coat them with sugar and brown sugar evenly. Since the wonton wrappers are small, you can only work with 1 slice at a time. Roll into  little eggrolls and fry in hot oil until golden brown. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy. Simple and sweet…

“How funky is your chicken?” Chicken Afritada

This is a hearty, tomato-based chicken stew. It’s definitely a favorite among the kids and hubby-so they say. It consists of chicken, fried potatoes and red bell peppers. Frying the potatoes really brings out the savoriness of the dish. This is what I grew up eating and (I know my mom is reading this: my version is NOT as good as hers), it is extremely easy to make. I will admit, I cheat and use the Mama Sita’s afritada mix, but remember: I’m a “working mom” and shelling out $1.09 for the packet is much easier for me.

fried potatoes

Please note, I’m also NOT a professional photographer and I DON’T have a fancy camera, therefore, these pics are the best I can do. And since we’re being honest, I think you should know that I’m typing this with one hand because I’m nursing the baby with the other!

boiling chicken thighs

red bell peppers

Good 'Ole Mama Sita and her mix!

Ingredients:

3 medium-sized russet potatoes

1 large red bell pepper

Chicken (I used 10 bone-in chicken thighs with skin-but you can use whatever you prefer)

1 packet of Mama Sita’s Menudo/Afritada stew mix

1 tbsp. cooking oil for frying

Directions:

Combine the Mama Sita mix with 1/2 a cup of water then set aside. Wash, peel and quarter potatoes then fry them in a skillet containing hot cooking oil. Brown potatoes on both sides and set aside for later. Cut red bell pepper into strips and set aside (feel free to save some of the red bell pepper seeds to make your dish spicy!) In a wok, brown the chicken on both sides, then add  water to make a nice boil. Add the Mama Sita mix to the chicken and let simmer while the chicken cooks through. Finally, add the fried potatoes and red bell pepper to the cooked chicken and you-are-done! Serve hot and of course, with white rice. Pretty easy huh? Enjoy!