Loopy Mini Cupcakes

Ok, today we have become kids again, but now we are free of all those binding rules (sorry mom, love you).

I saw these loopy mini muffins and thought "Ian will go crazy over these, I am going to make them for him" because seriously, we are grown ups now, we can eat cereal with our dessert, or even dessert for breakfast. This freedom is pretty much all that I wanted when I was young. I also wanted to eat only chocolate bars for a week straight, but mini cupcakes will do.

The thing that makes these little guys killer is that the fruit cereals flavours are in the batter. Orange, lime, and lemon paired with Fruity Cheerios™ (sorry, not Froot Loops™, the Cheerios version is made with real fruit juice, smaller, and they don’t tear apart the roof of your mouth) that completely increase the cereal flavour. There is even milk in the recipe! I made one batch and they were gone before they could cool, so was the second batch for that matter.

Loopy Mini Cupcakes
adapted from The Breakfast Cereal Gourmet by David Hoffman
makes 18 mini cupcakes

4 tbsp. unsalted butter
½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
¾ cup sifted all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
¼ cup milk
Zest of half and orange
Zest of half a lemon
Zest of half a lime
¾ cup Fruity Cheerios
Powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg, mixing in well. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix into the butter mixture alternating with the milk. Add orange, lime, and lemon zest to batter. Spoon the batter into muffin pans lined with cupcake paper cups, filling them three-quarters full, and pushing cereal in to the top of each muffin, covering the surface. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until the cupcakes are puffed and firm in the center. One cooled dust with powdered sugar.