The Cooking Chronicles: Almost-Cutie Pies

I received my first free issue of What's Cooking magazine last week, and though I didn't need an occasion to make the adorable Cutie Pies, Jane's gathering on Saturday was a handy catalyst all the same. Mack lent me the use of his kitchen and a helping hand.

The recipe seemed easy enough, simply calling for muffins made from cake mix to start, with a supplementary mixture of pudding and Cool-Whip to serve as the filling for the cupcakes. Well, the muffins themselves turned out fine, but the filling was another story. I'm not sure if we just didn't let the pudding mixture stand long enough to congeal, or if it was the use of no-name whipped topping that killed us, but regardless, we ended up ditching the "cream" portion of the recipe all together, as spreading the water-like substance would have been counter-intuitive. We did however go ahead with the melted chocolate topping, and to dress it up a bit, I made some shavings from a square of baking chocolate.

I'm a perfectionist when it comes to cooking, and needless to say I'm disappointed that the Cutie Pies didn't turn out. We did make the best of what we ended up with though!

Almost-Cutie Pies