(posted by Andy Corley)

So my 5-yr-old daughter is graduating from kindergarten this week and her teacher tells me she would like to celebrate Kaitlyn’s birthday tomorrow since her birthday will be during the summer break.

OK, no problem. I’ll pick up some cupcakes or something for her to share with her classmates (it’s a small class).

Only I never ended up making it to the store and now it’s 10pm after all the kids are in bed! So I got to thinking and realized I have two boxes of Wal-mart’s “Great Value” Complete Buttermilk Pancake Mix in the cupboards … and there just has to be a way to make cupcakes from pancake mix!

And sure enough, after only a few Google searches, I found the perfect recipe! I knew it could be done because I had some left-over chocolate chips to melt, sugar, eggs, milk, shortening (well, I’ll just put 1/3 cup oil instead of the shortening it calls for).

So there! I melted the chocolate, 3/4 cup sugar and oil together for easy mixing, added 1 cup milk (to cool it down), two eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 cup pancake mix … and stirred it all together!

Then, since I didn’t have any paper cupcake liners, I just did how Mom taught me years ago and buttered up a 12-hole cupcake tin and sprinkled some flour in and shook it around (oops! trying not to get flour everywhere). Then, guessing on how much batter for each cupcake, I ended up with about 4 tablespoons in each of 11 cupcake holes. Hmmm, hope it’s OK to cook with one hole empty!

So they’re in the oven now … on 375 F for 15-17 min. How do you think they’ll turn out???

Leave me some comments below and I’ll fill you in more tomorrow! Oh, and I do have some chocolate buttercream frosting — and maybe even sprinkles — to go on top!

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COMMENTS:

“You go! What creativity!! I bet they were delicious!!” – Mom
(Monday, May 18, 2009 @ 11:44 pm)

“Anyone who can understand computers can DEFINITELY make cupcakes from pancake mix! You go! Proud of you, hon.” – Aunt Robin
(Tuesday, May 19, 2009 @ 6:50 am)

“WOW Andy that is amazing.
You have taught this grandma of 9 a new trick! Ü
Super job Dad!
Blessings from Ginger and family”
(Tuesday, May 19, 2009 @ 11:04 am)

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Reporting back …
The chocolate “cupcakes” turned out to be a big hit!!!
… a wee bit soft (or nice & moist) but held together OK. On first analysis I thought they probably had a little too much chocolate and a little too much oil, but that just made them taste really good! And reports came back that the whole kindergarten class liked them a lot … including the teacher!

When I asked Kaitlyn what she thought of her birthday cupcakes she said, “What cupcakes? You mean the chocolate muffins?” So I guess without frosting she figured they were muffins. But she loved them either way. So overall, the project was a huge success! … thanks, Mom, for all those cooking lessons over the years.