Week 1. Pear-fectly Bubbly New Year's Eve Cupcakes

First cupcakes! I wanted to do something festive and (hopefully) delicious...and I think I succeeded! Enjoy my hints and DO make the recipe...it is simply divine!

Pear-fectly Bubbly New Year's Eve Cupcakes

Cupcakes:
2 3/4 cups of flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
2 sticks of butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 firm-ish but ripe pears (the original recipe called to grate them, but I peeled, cored and chopped them and they made the cupcake deliciously moist!)
1 cup champagne

Frosting:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
3 cups powdered sugar (sifted)
2 tbsp champagne (you may want to add more...I didn't measure, just did it by look but make sure it's not runny)

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a small bowl sift flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In mixer (or large bowl), cream butter and sugar until well mixed and airy.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, making sure each one is full incorporated before adding next.
5. Slowly add in flour mixture - I do it 1/3 at a time - making sure it is fully incorporated.
6. Stir in vanilla and champagne.
7. Stir in pears.
8. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners.
9. Scoop an even amount of dough into each cup - I filled them to about 1/4 of an inch from the top). You should have enough for about 24 cupcakes.
10. Bake for about 16 minutes. Start checking at about 12 minutes, BUT my oven at home took around 22 minutes. So keep checking at doing them for two minutes more until they look golden.
11. While cupcakes are baking, make frosting. Mix cream cheese and butter together. Add champagne and powdered sugar and whip until smooth. You can add more powdered sugar if desired.
12. Remove cupcakes from oven and cool in tins for 2 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack.
13. When cupcakes are completely cooled, top with frosting.




**Hannah's Hints**
The hardest part of this recipe: Finding the sifter! Because really, who uses sifters anymore? You can't wash them, so they just sit flour-y in the cupboard. Ours was smooshed in the back...and then hand cramps occurred from sifting for so long. It's hard...I suggest having a sous chef (aka a helper) to take over when your hands start aching.

Softening butter and cream cheese may sound silly, but DO IT! Seriously, it's so helpful and exciting when it works well. I suggest letting them sit out for a couple hours. You don't want them melted, just soft.
Now...if you forget to do this (like I always do), you can moosh them with your hands OR (as I discovered this time) put them on the heat vent for about 10 minutes when warm air is coming out. Again, NOT melted. I suggest not doing the heat vent thing...but it is exciting to discover new ways to do things, yeah?

You will be tempted to eat the batter and frosting...because it smells DIVINE and tastes even better. The batter has raw egg in it, so I don't encourage it...but if you happen to spill some on your hand...I mean, I'm not dead yet ;-) However, I always have SO much extra icing, I definitely suggest finishing it off with pretzels or something...yummmm. This recipe is DIVINE!

**My FAVORITE thing about this recipe is that I took it to Hermann New Year's Party...Zach Wachter has long been a hater of cupcakes, cakes, and chocolate. (Which is just strange if you ask me...) But we forced him to try one and he LOVED it! WE CONVERTED HIM TO A CUPCAKE LOVER!! Personal triumph is the sweetest :-D

original recipe from YumSugar