These Fortune Cookie Cupcakes are the perfect way to end your Chinese-inspired Shabbat meal on Christmas! That’s right, I’m packing my Shabbat menu with Chinese food dishes since Christmas falls on Shabbat this year, and the tradition of eating dinner at a Chinese restaurant on Christmas will be replaced with a Friday night Shabbat meal.
I chose a delicious vanilla almond cupcake to fit the Chinese theme, but feel free to use your family’s favorite type of cupcake. And just like a fortune cookie, these cupcakes have a fortune inside! You didn’t think I would leave out the best part of a fortune cookie, did you? You could get your kids involved by asking them to write the fortunes, or you can write the fortunes yourself, and surprise everybody with the hidden gems inside. Either way, these are fun for all ages. The fortune-filled cupcakes are then finished with a fortune cookie sitting atop a sinful chocolate frosting.
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Now let’s have a virtual pep-talk about frosting. You can frost your cupcakes beautifully without being a professional cake decorator. I promise! I, too, used to be afraid of frosting cupcakes. In fact, I never really made cupcakes because of it. I didn’t like the look of frosting just shmeared around on top, but I also thought that piping frosting was way out of my league.
Until I fell in love with the idea of Fortune Cookie Cupcakes for a Chinese Shabbat, and wanted them to look as stunning as I envisioned them in my head. So I nervously bought disposable piping bags and frosting tips from the grocery store (I use the 1M tip), watched a quick YouTube video, and was piping frosting before I knew it! It really is easy, and everybody will be super impressed.
Enjoy your Chinese Shabbat complete with the most fun cupcakes around!
For the cupcakes:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
½ cup butter (or margarine), room temperature
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
For the frosting:
6 tablespoons butter (or margarine)
2 2/3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup water
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
12 fortune cookies
Yield: 12 cupcakes
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line a standard-sized cupcake tin with cupcake liners.
3. To create your fortunes, cut twelve ½ inch x 2 inch pieces of regular white paper, and write a fortune on each piece. Wrap each fortune in aluminum foil by folding foil over each side of the paper. Set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
5. Using a stand mixer or electric hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together for 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
6. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each egg. Beat in the almond extract and vanilla extract until combined.
7. Add the flour mixture and almond milk alternately, starting and ending with the flour. Mix just until combined and a uniform batter forms.
8. Fill each cupcake liner about 2/3 of the way with batter. Add a fortune to the top of each cupcake, pushing the fortune down into the batter. The fortune will stick out the top of the cupcake a little bit, but it will be covered by the frosting.
9. Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Transfer cupcake tin to a wire rack and cool completely.
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10. To make the frosting, add the butter to the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until smooth and creamy. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the powdered sugar and cocoa powder in small batches.
11. Add the water and vanilla extract, and beat for 2 minutes on high until the frosting is smooth and fluffy. If the frosting is too thick, add more water. If it’s too thin, add more powdered sugar.
12. Frost the cooled cupcakes by cutting off the end of a disposable piping bag, adding a tip inside the piping bag (I used a 1M tip), and filling the bag with frosting. Frost each cupcake and top with a fortune cookie. Enjoy!
