Feast Your Pies on This

 Sorry, the blog was getting a little dusty and vacant. Not for my lack of baking, though. I actually made several cakes between my last blog in March and now, but because I am 1,000% picky and 7,000% critical of myself, I didn't like how they turned out visually, so I didn't blog about them. While the recipes themselves were super yummy (and will be used again in future posts), my decorating was rather "blah." Well, my whole mood from 2020-2021 has been rather "blah," so I guess these cakes were just following suit. I was having feelings that would go really well with pie, so I knew what pick-me-up was in order to get me out of my baking rut. In pies we crust.

I only have pies for you.

Okay, these aren't actual pies, but hear me out...Pies are baked goods that are filled with fruit and have a crust. My pie cupcakes are also baked goods that are filled with fruit and have a crust (sure it's a piped decoration crust, but it still counts). Other added benefits of pie cupcakes over actual pies are that shoveling them in your mouth using only your hands is not frowned upon, you get 12 servings instead of only 8, and for the life of me, I cannot get a gluten-free scratch pie crust recipe to work, but cupcakes? Oh yes, I can make the heck out of some cupcakes. If you're pie-ning for a dessert that is a cute, festive addition to any summer BBQ (now that we can do those again, yay, science!), these more than fit the bill. Half a dozen cupcakes are heaped with blueberry pie filling and the other half have cherry pie filling inside. You could easily double the recipe for 24 cupcakes, but my husband and I don't need 24 cupcakes for just the two of us (read: I take that as a personal challenge to eat them three at a time). Thankfully, this recipe is only 195 calories per piecake...which means you could also top them with the world's tiniest scoop of ice cream and have guilt-free pie a la mode!

I mean, it's the little things in life, right?

I am always on the lookout for gluten free cake mixes that don't taste like gritty sandpaper after they're baked or dry out within 5 minutes of removing from the oven. Basically, good gluten free cake mixes are about as rare as unicorns (and also as expensive as I'd imagine a unicorn would be). My go-to is Whole Food's brand, but truly, I didn't want to make 600 cupcakes, just 12, so when I found Betty Crocker's gluten free yellow cake mix that makes one 9-inch round cake or, as luck would have it, a dozen cupcakes, I thought I'd try it out with very minimal changes to the ingredients the box called for and see what happened. To make my pie cupcakes, I used:

• Box of yellow cake mix (any will do if you're not gluten free, but only use half the mix to make 12 cupcakes)
• 2 eggs at room temp
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce at room temp
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 3/4 cup water (or milk, but Betty called for water, so I listened)
• Your preferred brand of canned blueberry and cherry pie fillings. For less sugar, I like using Duncan Hines Simply Pie Filling

You'll also need summer-appropriate cupcake liners. Not optional.

I preheated the oven to 325 (my oven cooks HOT and things get dried out easily; the box instructions called for 350, so follow your instructions if your oven isn't tethered to the sun), lined my muffin tin, and then dumped everything EXCEPT the pie fillings into my stand mixer, mixing on low for 30 seconds, then bumping to medium-high for two minutes. I used a cookie scoop to place one and a half scoops of batter into each liner, and I baked these for 21 minutes at 325. A toothpick came out mostly clean, and I didn't want to risk over-baking and drying out the cakes, so I removed them from the oven and let them rest while still in the pan on top of a cooling rack for 10 minutes before removing from the pan and allowing to cool completely to room temp.

Which was hard because they smelled like I needed to eat one right away.

You don't want to core and fill your cupcakes with the pie filling until they are cool to the touch. I placed mine into the fridge while I made and dyed my frosting, and this gave them (and me) enough time to chill out.

Sadly, my yogurt cream cheese frosting didn't make the cut.

So my cakes that were DELICIOUS BEYOND ALL REASON but didn't look pretty? Yogurt cream cheese frosting was to blame. While it works for some bigger decorating, things like stenciling and small piping (you know, the things I wanted to do) just don't work well since it isn't a stiff enough frosting. So, back to regular cream cheese frosting for anything piping-centric. Or in this case, pie-ping centric. Not sorry. For the frosting:

• 8 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese at room temp
• 1/2 cup light butter at room temp
• 3 cups Lakanto monkfruit sweetener or powdered sugar
  
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract 
• Navy, purple, maroon, red, brown, and beige gel dyes (if you only have blue/red/beige, this will work fine)

Whip the butter and cream cheese until fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add in the 3 cups of sweetener and the extracts, blending on low speed until things start coming together; then turn to medium-high and let everything fully incorporate. Full disclosure: for only 12 cupcakes, you will have a TON of leftover frosting. Freeze it for later! Or you know, eat most of it with a spoon. Whatever makes you happy.

This is why I always have a spoon handy.

I placed large heaps of frosting into three bowls. For my blueberry pie, I used a mix of navy blue and purple gel dyes. For my cherry pie, I used maroon and bright red. Finally, for my crust, I used a tiny bit of brown mixed with beige. I loaded each into a piping bag. For the blueberries, I used a #5 round tip; for my cherries, I used a #12 round tip, but this ended up being a little too big for my liking. If you have two #5 tips, just use these. I used two different tips for my crust. For the "lattice," I used a basketweave tip (Wilton #46), and for my crust border, I used a #21 star tip. Now, put your piping bags and the leftover bowl of frosting into the fridge to firm up while you fill your cupcakes with PIE!

Dessert mashups are highly underrated.

Remember, COOL YOUR CAKES! This is my life's mantra. When they're cool enough to core, use the end of a large piping tip or a cupcake corer if you have one. I always just grab my 1A tip and use the base. You're only going to need about a tablespoon of pie filling in each cupcake, and since I count my macros, even for dessert, I pre-measured my pie fillings. I ended up with enough leftover pie filling to make actual pies, so I put these in airtight containers and froze for later (and maybe ate some with a spoon...measured of course, cause ya know, macro tracking is addictive).

Take another little piece of my heart now, baby.

Simply wiggle the base of the frosting tip into the center of the cupcake until it's about halfway into the cake. Remove, and grab some pie filling.

Pie truly does fill the empty void.

I filled half my cakes with cherry and half with blueberry pie filling. You could do all one flavor if you wanted, but you know, eating them two a time, you get more variety this way (nods knowingly). I took the hollowed out pieces and crumbled them on top of the pie filling. You could skip this, but I refuse to waste or throw away cake (into my mouth. I would've eaten all 12 toppers).

She's my cherry pie!

To start decorating your pies, simply pipe little round blobs of cherries or blueberries on top of your filling with a small round tip. I did all my cherry pies first, then put these into the fridge so the frosting would firm up while I piped all my blueberries. I shifted back and forth between having one set in the fridge to firm up the frosting while the other set were out being decorated since I live in Florida where it is hot and humid and things as delicate as cream cheese frosting stand no chance at room temp.

Everything is sweaty. Everything.

Once my cherries had firmed up and it was safe to pipe on top of them without worrying about the frostings bleeding together or clumping, I put the basketweave tip on my beige frosting. I simply piped three stripes down one side of my cupcake.

You're already adorable and you're not even finished yet.

Then I turned my cupcake the opposite direction and piped three more lines to finish my lattice pattern, then back into the fridge with all six cherry cupcakes, and out with all six blueberry cupcakes to do the same thing. My sweaty hands (why is everything so hot, Florida?!) were an issue a few times, so I also placed my piping bag (tip removed) in the freezer for 5 minutes or so to let my frosting firm back up. If you find your frosting is getting hard to control, try freezing it for just a bit. This will make a huge difference in how crisp your lines look.

I am occu-pied by how perfect this looks.

To finish, swap your beige frosting tip over to a #21, then pipe shells, sideways, around the edge of the cupcake. If you're feeling extra (when am I not?), you can add some large sanding sugar crystals on top to make it look even more like an actual pie.

When in doubt, always add sprinkles.

They're cutie pies, alright.

You wanna piece of me??!

 Nothing says summer quite like pie and that irrepressible Florida humidity, so these pie-inspired cupcakes are at least bringing me some much needed relief from sweaty madness. I was a little skeptical of using a new box mix, but Betty Crocker's gluten free mix turned out to be pretty tasty. I would add another tablespoon or two of liquid next time though; while the flavor is AWESOME (thank you, almond extract, the unsung hero of all baked goods), even with under-baking these a little, they're a little too dry for my liking. I prefer a super moist (sorry) cupcake, and these had a texture that was more dense than moist (but thankfully not grainy or cardboard-adjacent at all). HOWEVER, since they're all filled with yummy, syrup-y pie filling, this really helps lessen how dense the cakes are, and most people with novice palettes or taste buds probably won't even notice (read: drunk uncles and children at your family BBQ will still be eating these two at a time). Plus, add that cream cheese frosting on top, and it's stellar flavor from start to finish. It's been a hot minute since I've made a regular cream cheese frosting, and classics are classics for a reason. Add all that together and it equals one tasty piecake you're probably not gonna want to share (so maybe do make 24). I'm having a hard time deciding if I like the blueberry or cherry piecakes better, so I suppose I'm just going to have to keep eating them until I find out. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

You could say I have fillings for these beauties.