Cupcake - Cookie Challenge

I may have lost my mind last weekend, or, I may have been awarded "Wife of the Year 2013."  Either way, Ryan came out the winner (actually, anyone that tasted the challenge contestants was a winner), and proved to be an excellent judge for the Cupcake - Cookie Challenge.

The challenge began when I asked a simple question, "Ryan, I want to make carrot cake, would you prefer carrot cake cupcakes, or carrot cake cookies?"  You may ask yourself, carrot cake cookies?  I was thinking on the lines of convenience, cookies are a lot easier (and smaller) to eat than cupcakes.  Ultimately, I ended up making both carrot cake cookies, AND carrot cake cupcakes!  Why? Because Ryan's response to my question was, "Well, how am I possibly able to decide which I would prefer, unless I have a side by side taste comparison?"  Now, a normal (sane) wife would note the sarcasm in her husband's voice, laugh, and make the choice she prefers, but take into consideration my first sentence of this blog post, and the fact cooking/baking is a huge source of entertainment, I chose to make both, and give Ryan his side by side taste comparison.

I browsed through a few carrot cake recipes I had bookmarked, and researched a few new recipes.  I wanted the batter recipes to be very similar so that it was ultimately a competition between cupcake, and cookie.

The Batter

Above: Cupcake

Below: Cookie

Ready for the oven:

Time to cool before frosting:

Everyone knows that carrot cake is not complete without cream cheese frosting.  I knew if I frosted the cupcakes and not the cookies, then the cookies would be at a HUGE disadvantage.  I made one single batch of cream cheese frosting, and used it on both.

In corner number one, you have the dominating, traditional carrot cake cupcake, in the other corner, the small yet mighty carrot cake cookie......

The winner?  You should not be surprised, Ryan loved them both (me too!).  The judge decided that the cupcake won for the classic craving, what you would want if you craved carrot cake.  He decided the cookie won for convenience, it is so easy to grab a cookie (or two), and in a bite (or two) eat it.  In the end, the Cupcake - Cookie Challenge resulted in a tie, but now Ryan can say he had his side by side taste comparison.  I would like to say this is the first, and last challenge of this sort, but I already know there will be more in the future.  I wouldn't mind, it was fun.

An extra bit to end this post.  A brief conversation that took place, I quickly wrote, then typed the conversation knowing I would add it to this blog post, whenever I got around to posting.....

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V (sitting at the computer): I just found the recipes for carrot cake cupcakes, and carrot cake cookies.
R(in the other room): Oh, yeah?
V: Oh, and I also found another cupcake recipe that is going to blow your socks off.
R(one second pause): Does it have something to do with peanut butter?
V: Yeeeees
R(one second pause): Peanut butter, dry aged beef, and bacon!?!?!
V: no response, pulls out post-it note, and begins to write down Ryan’s guess
R(walking to the computer): Did I guess right?
V: still no response
R: Did I?!?!
V: still no response
R(looking at post-it): I did guess right! 
V: No, honey, I have to write this down because people don’t believe me when I tell them this stuff.
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I have no intentions of EVER making peanut butter, dry aged beef, and bacon cupcakes.  Who thinks of that? 

I love him so much. :) 

But, do look for a future post, when I make the peanut butter related cupcake recipe I found that sparked this conversation.