Babysitting With a Fun Twist

Babysitting isn't really my thing. I'm not really good with kids, I don't know why! I can't tell stories, sing songs, or play games.. it just isn't my thing, and to be honest I dread the idea of me having to do these things with my children one day. But maybe one would react differently with one's own children.. I like to believe that.

A friend wanted me to babysit for her the other day, and I gladly agreed. Her kids are the sweetest masha'allah, (maybe because they've been homeschooled? Ok.. go ahead and call me biased..!) but really, they are! With them I don't have to pretend I'm an 8 year old, talk like an 8 year old or act like one, (most people do that with kids here.. ) I can just be myself.

So instead of letting them watch TV or play some computer game, I thought we could bake cupcakes and take turns photographing them in different settings.
We made carrot cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese frosting.

We made little fondant flowers and carrots to go on top of the cream cheese frosting. 


Unfortunately, by the time they were done, it was already nighttime, and photographing the cupcakes in the garden (as I have planned) was out of the question.

The photos turned out really bad due to the dim lights in the kitchen. So I saved a few on the side, and photographed them the next morning.

 

Aren't they adorable?! 

 

 They were yum yumm yummy!!

Here is the recipe we used:

Ingredients

    * 2 ounces white chocolate
    * 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
    * 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
    * 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (liquid)
    * 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
    * 4 cups icing sugar
    * 2 tablespoons heavy cream
    * 
    * 2 eggs, lightly beaten
    * 1 1/8 cups white sugar
    * 1/3 cup brown sugar
    * 1/2 cup vegetable oil
    * 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    * 2 cups shredded carrots
    * 1/2 cup crushed pineapple
    * 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
    * 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
    * 1/2 teaspoon salt
    * 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
    * 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
    * 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
    * 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

   1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 12 muffin cups.
   2. In small saucepan, melt white chocolate over low heat. Stir until smooth, and allow to cool to room temperature.
   3. In a bowl, beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in white chocolate, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and orange extract. Gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar until the mixture is fluffy. Mix in heavy cream.
   4. Beat together the eggs, white sugar, and brown sugar in a bowl, and mix in the oil and vanilla. Fold in carrots and pineapple. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Mix flour mixture into the carrot mixture until evenly moist. Fold in 1/2 cup walnuts. Transfer to the prepared muffin cups.
   5. Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool completely on wire racks before topping with the icing and sprinkling with remaining walnuts.

I didn't add walnuts though, nor pineapples (pineapples? it just didn't make sense to me..)

If you try this, let me know how it turned out! Or maybe even take a picture?