Airplanes in the Skies

 

I had been working myself up over last weekend’s project that I mentioned in the Marshmallow Fondon't post.  This was a baby shower with an airplane theme for a baby boy to be named Skylar. To die for, right? My friend asked me to make airplane sugar cookie lollipops as well as “sky” themed cupcakes.  

After playing with so many ideas for cloud decorations, I finally came up with homemade piping marshmallow  to make into free form cloud shapes because who wants to eat hardened gum paste or box fondant?  It worked like a dream! The results were amaaazing, if I do say so myself.

 

 

 Instead of using sanding sugar (as with marshmallow Peeps), I dusted with powdered sugar for a softer, billowy result.  They were also yummy with the frosting - a white chocolate cream cheese buttercream recipe courtesy of The Cake Bible (I <3 The Cake Bible) to complement the cookies and cream cupcakes.

 

For the sugar cookies, I used a great 2" airplane cookie cutter from Sur La Table and a basic sugar cookie recipe.  I am still on the fence about this cookie recipe because the cookies spread more than I would have liked in spite of chilling the dough before and after cutting, even with varying rolled thicknesses and baking times. 

I felt that filling and flooding the cookies with royal icing would have taken FOREVER and would have delivered less than smooth results. I used the homemade marshmallow fondant that I made earlier. This was my first time working with fondant and I found that this kind of fondant froze beautifully, was easy to work with and tasted great (yes, believe it).  In retrospect, I would have saved much time and anxiety by simply laying the lollipop stick directly over the sugar cook and pressing gently - rather than the many creatively difficult other ways I had been doing it (like pushing them in horizontally  or laying the cookie on top of the stick). Pressing the sticks in from the top, baking, and covering the visible stick with fondant would have made pretty cookie lollipops - front aaaand back. Right?

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

makes 24

1 stick unsalted sweet cream butter, softened

1 cup evaporated milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup cake flour

1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 pkg Oreo Cookies (Orea brand highly preferred)

Preheat over to 350F and insert cupcake liners into standard cupcake pan.

Twist apart 24 Oreos and place the half with the cream on it in the bottom of each well, cream side up.  Save the remaining halves for garnish, if desired.  Quarter the remaining cookies with a sharp knife and set aside to mix with batter.

In a medium bowl sift together the dry ingredients.

In a large bowl cream the butter until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the milk and vanilla and mix to combine. Add egg whites, one at a time until well incorporated. Beat for 2 minutes. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low spead until just combined. Fold in quartered cookies. Drop batter into cupcake liners to about 2/3 full (a mechanical ice cream scoop helps).

Bake about 20 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting. The bottoms of these cupcakes can be a little greasy, so I like to do the last bit of the cooling process on paper towels.

Adapted from Beantown Baker