Girl Scout Cookies and Cupcake Wars

Have I ever told you that we would LOVE to be on Cupcake Wars? Well, consider yourself informed! Jess and I have made it our goal to be on Cupcake Wars… and well, win. Now we know that the competition can be steep – so we have been practicing. This week is one such practice session… GIRL SCOUT COOKIE CUPCAKES!

Mal - helping me bake
on her visit to Plainview

Girl Scouts are awesome, and although they do so many great things for our communities and environment, they sell me cookies making them worthy of all badges in my book (also making them better than Boy Scouts, sorry guys). But this year, I was very sad to realize that my number one Girl Scout Cookie Supplier, my sweet cousin Mallory, was no longer in business. Bummer… well I had to settle for the troop in front of Hastings for my Thin Mint and Samoa fix… and my Tag-a-Long and Lemon Crème fix…

As I was demolishing a box of Thin Mints (there really should be more in a box), I realized that they would taste AWESOME in cupcakes… AND THEN I decided that so many of the cookies are cupcake worthy… AND THEN I decided that we would make it like a Cupcake War challenge! BRILLIANT!

So of course I called Jess (she loved it) and an hour later we met at the Brew and planned each cupcake, testing flavors and ideas… we were so excited. We decided that we would recreate the cookie, in cupcake form of course, and then serve the cupcake with a cookie so that everyone could compare tastes - we were ready.

Here is what we came up with:

                Monday: Thanks-A-Lot - A vanilla shortbread cookie with a vanilla cupcake, milk chocolate buttercream and topped with another vanilla shortbread cookie.

                 Tuesday: Thin Mints - A chocolate mint cupcake with a chocolate cookie topped with chocolate mint ganache .

                Wednesday: Tagalongs - A peanut butter cookie with a chocolate cupcake, filled with a creamy peanut butter filling, topped with chocolate ganache.

                Thursday: Lemon Cremes - A lemon-vanilla cupcake with fresh whipped cream infused with lemon, topped with a vanilla shortbread cookie and fresh lemon glaze and lemon zest.

                Friday: Samoas - A vanilla shortbread cookie with a vanilla cupcake filled with fresh caramel, topped with chocolate ganache and toasted coconut.

So we had the plan and all we needed were the cookies and so I posted on good old facebook how we needed cookies - almost instantly we had people calling in and stopping by and messaging that they had our cookies - WE HAVE THE BEST CUSTOMERS! A short thirty minutes later we had cookies and were ready for Monday!

It is Friday, and as I sit here blogging, I hear several people comment on how they not only liked the cupcakes, but also how much they tasted like the cookies. I think this challenge was a success!

 - alex