Date Night: Cupcake Wars edition

Each week, Eric and I make sure that we set aside one night for a "date night".  It might not necessarily be something "special"- maybe just cooking together, going out to eat, getting a redbox movie, or bowling...but we want to consciously set aside time for just us.  We've heard the argument that every night before having children is a date night (which is true)- so this is a priority that we want set in place from the start of our marriage.  We know that it might look different later in life, but we are trying to be very deliberate in establishing things now and starting our marriage off well in every aspect.

One of the shows that we love to watch is Cupcake Wars....where four bakers come in and are competing to present a 1000 cupcake display for a special event and $10,000.  Eric challenged me to a cupcake war for a date night a few weeks ago.  We both got to pick what we wanted to attempt to make (and unlike the show, I used a box mix).  Eric decided to make a classic chocolate cupcake with cream filling and a buttercream frosting.  I decided to make a chocolate chip cookie dough cupcake with chocolate buttercream frosting.  I had to make cookie dough and freeze it for at least 2 hours and then add that into my batter.

For those of you who do not watch Cupcake Wars (and are missing out)- the competition is comprised of 3 rounds.
Round 1 is based on taste. There are four bakers and they usually have to work with secret ingredients- and one is eliminated.
Round 2 is based on taste and presentation. The three remaining bakers have to create three different cupcakes that best represent the theme for that episode- and would represent the event they are trying to showcase. One more is eliminated after this round.
Round 3 is when the two remaining contestants work with a team and compose a 1000-cupcake display, in which they also work with a carpenter to create something perfect for the event.
And someone is declared winner.

So at the end of the night, we both split a cupcake and Eric declared me winner.  He felt like the chocolate cupcake was a little dry.  I would call it more of a tie as I may have won the taste portion, but he is better at decorating.  I struggled to use our Pampered Chef frosting decorator- so he actually decorated over half of my cupcakes!
 

Look at that cookie dough inside! YUM!!

He inserted frosting instead of the original cream filling!

I made my cupcakes a bit healthier, using applesauce in place of the oil, and egg beaters in place of the eggs- which also makes them more moist.  Eric made the chocolate cupcakes again a few days later to take to a youth event at church and they turned out SO great.  He just decreased the baking time and made some chocolate shavings to dress them up.

A few final comments:
1. No, I didn't intend this to become a baking blog.  I'll try and think about non-food related things to write about soon.
2. No, Eric and I do not eat everything that we make.  We generally try to give most things away and don't just have treats like this lying around the kitchen all the time.
3. We've heard that you can get "relaxed" and "let yourself go" after getting married.  We don't have any plan to do that- and yes, we still work out and eat fairly healthy.