Chocolate Puto Buttercream Bombs

Sofia is suffering from cabin fever because she was sick last Tuesday night, so she had to stay home to rest. Her fever reached 39 degrees the next night, so we wanted to make sure it would turn into nothing serious. It went down the next day, but we were keeping her under observation to make sure it wouldn't go back up again (one of the dreaded symptoms of dengue, I was told). She is now much better with flashes of slight fever, but since Sofia is not really the type to stay home and sit still, I had to find a way to entertain her. 

 

We decided to use Ninong Timmy's Christmas present.

He was so proud of his well thought of gift for Fi.
Disney Cupcakes Cookbook and Pink Spatula

We decided to make Princess Jasmine Abu Cupcakes

It got complicated because the recipe calls for Chocolate Cake Mix and Ready (store bought) Frosting, things easy to buy in the US. We decided to make cupcakes from scratch instead (using ingredients my mom dictated to me). 

Sofia takes measuring seriously.

It gets quite messy though.

Sofia also does the mixing. 

We were aiming for the light chocolate cupcakes from my childhood (using mayo), but I'll be honest and admit we ended up with glutinous bland chocolate cupcakes that taste like chocolate puto (local steamed rice cake delicacy) if you can imagine chocolate flavored puto. 

It was bland because I erred on the side of caution, not sure if my mom gave me the original recipe (where we normally adjust the sugar) or the adjusted recipe, so I stopped adding sugar when the batter tasted sweet enough. The glutinousness, I have no idea, but yaya said the batch of the flour we used (Gold Medal All Purpose) was very sticky. Weird, right?

I was half tempted to throw all our chocolate cupcakes away, but Sofia wanted to decorate them so much, she kept on tasting the cupcakes and telling me they were yummy. Hahaha. So I decided to save them through the icing instead.

I made one batch of Buttercream frosting, converting half into Chocolate Buttercream, and the other half into Vanilla Buttercream that I split into cream, yellow, blue and green.

Sofia was so excited because Auntie Celit just arrived
with Cupcake Decorations for her.

They worked on the cupcakes with colored icing to make funny faces
and other nice designs.

I frosted the chocolate cupcakes and Sofia put the finishing touches
on the Abu Cupcakes. 

Sofia very proud of our creation!
She brought this out to serve her Yayas.
Each yaya wanted to have their picture taken w/ her first.
I think, by the third yaya, the plate fell. oh well.

We also sent a container to Ninong Timmy,
without telling him that they are Chocolate Puto Buttercream Bombs

I tried them again and the Vanilla Buttercream actually goes
 quite well with the Chocolate Puto Cupcakes.

Thanks for the cookbook Ninong Timmy.

Ma keeps on saying I disaster-ed her recipe. Hahaha. In fairness, I don't think I've ever tasted Chocolate Puto when she makes it, but to be fair to Sofia and me, a list of ingredients does not make a recipe!!! hahaha.

Anyway, we already have a plan to make more. The next time we'll get Ma to make the cupcakes, then we'll just decorate them. just saying.