Baking Through the Alphabet: The Letter O

The Letter O:

Letter O Meal:

• Orange Chicken
• Oranges
• Olives

 My daughter wanted to make her own recipe up for the letter O.  I was a little nervous to let her go with this one, but she did her homework by finding a chocolate mocha cupcake recipe.  We don't particularly like mocha flavored stuff at our house anyway, so changing it to Oreo seemed like the perfect idea!    She exchanged crushed oreos for the coffee granuals 1 to 1.  Here is the site that she used to make her recipe:  browneyedbaker.com - mocha cupcakes.  You'll notice that the recipe isn't anywhere close to exactly the same, in fact she forgot the egg! 

 I did have to improvise a bit and add water and some milk; enough to make this look like cake batter, but it worked! So, her recipe was ok.  It may not be something you'd like to take to a competition or anything, but all 7 kiddos loved it!

This was also the day before school started after winter break, so her cousins were here to help with the baking.

Love my nieces face as she chops the Oreos.

 See all the dirty dishes in the sink.  Keeping it real, people!  

 The girls chopped up 1 cup of Oreos.

 They mixed all of the dry ingredients together.

 Then continued stirring the wet ingredients.  This recipe used vinegar.  I had never heard of that before and assumed it had something to do with the coffee beans, but it turns out that the baking soda and vinegar combination create carbon dioxide gas which will give the cupcakes a little boost (see this blog on The Purpose of Acids in Baking).

 Pouring the batter into the cups.  (A beautifully messy job!)

 Ready to go into the oven. As a side note, you'll notice that the recipe doesn't have eggs in it.  I did have to improvise a bit and add water enough to make this look like cake batter, but it worked! So, her recipe was ok.  It may not be something you'd like to take to a competition or anything, but all 7 kiddos loved it!

 While the cupcakes were baking, we made the frosting.

 The girls used butter and vegetable shortening for this frosting recipe.

 Haha! She had never used my handy-dandy shortening measuring tool before.

 Obviously this needs the milk to make it "frosting" but after the girls left to play a game, I thought the recipe needed some cocoa, and added it to make this a chocolate Oreo frosting.

Oreo Cupcakes Recipe:

• 1 1/2 C. Flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup crushed Oreos
• 1 Tbsp. white vinegar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup water

Mix all together and pour into prepared cupcake tins.

Frosting Recipe: (we got the recipe from here)

• 8 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 C shortening
• 4 Cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 6 Tbsp Oreo cookies, crushed
• Enough Oreo cookies to place in cupcakes as a garnish

 Letter O Musicals: (* = ones that are , in my opinion, decent or fun to watch; ** = kid friendly; *** = the one we watched for our alphabet musical)

• Oklahoma***
• The One and Only Genuine, Original Family Band**
• Oliver & Company**
• Oliver*
• On the Town*

I'll admit, Oklahoma is not my most favorite musical, but it has a few good songs - like the opening number: "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!" and "Oklahoma!".  I always felt bad for poor Judd, even though he is kind of a creeper.  Anyway, it didn't seem to be a favorite for my kids or husband either, BUT, I am from Oklahoma, so they had to watch it!!  Mwahaha!

Now, The One and Only Genuine, Original Family Band is another great Disney classic!  My kids (and husband) enjoyed this one a lot!  They loved the Grandpa and the music and the fact that there was a wheel barrow bet at the end.  It's one that I would definitely recommend!

I haven't seen Oliver & Company since it came out in 1988! But I put it on here as something that could be watched with young children but there is the scene with two of the characters being electrocuted (which is always creepy, even in a cartoon).  So beware of that.

Oliver is actually one of my favorite musicals!  I did have my kids watch this, but I fast forwarded the part when Sykes kills Nancy - it's too horrible and sad.

On the Town.  Remember that I kind of like Gene Kelly, but his goofy grin and over-the-top acting is kind of weird?  BUT, this musical has "New York, New York" in it!  Such a great song!  Another good one is, surprise, surprise, "On the Town".  So it's one worth looking into.