Neither deceptive nor delicious
Sadly, I’ve found the first recipe in Deceptively Delicious that turned out poorly: Blueberry Cheesecake Cupcakes. It’s one of the few recipes in the book where there isn’t an accompanying picture. Here’s why:
It’s a cupcake. No, really. I swear.
The batter includes spinach and blueberry purees, and the filling includes squash puree. The filling is passable. The batter, not so much.
First of all, the raw batter is a revolting dark turquoise color. Some colors, even naturally attained ones, just aren’t appetizing. Turquoise is one of those colors.
I had hoped that the color would change somewhat during the baking process, and it did. But dark green isn’t any better than turquoise, at least when it comes to cake.
But worse than the color was how the batter ran instead of rising as it baked. Perhaps I made a mistake in the recipe, or perhaps I should have adjusted it for the altitude, but I doubt it. I may not be a good cook, but I can bake. And none of the other recipes in Deceptively Delicious have required an altitude adjustment.
No, I think there was a good reason why these cupcakes weren’t pictured in the book. It’s possible that not even Jessica could make these cupcakes look good.
But did they taste good?
Well, they weren’t bad. I couldn’t taste the spinach, but I couldn’t really taste the blueberries either. They had a non-descript, blandly sweet taste - a taste that a kid could appreciate, I suppose. Unfortunately, because they’re undeniably green, I don’t think my kids would have been swayed by the taste. Even they know that cupcakes aren’t supposed to be green. That’s not at all deceptive, and I can’t call them delicious in good conscience.
And so, I must admit that there’s one recipe in Deceptively Delicious that I won’t make again.
But! This tale has a happy ending - for me, for Jessica, and for you too. Because although I wasted those baggies of spinach puree and blueberry puree on cupcakes that went down the disposal, I already know how I should have used them - another batch of Blueberry Oatmeal Bars, which - lucky for you - is one of the recipes posted on Oprah’s site.
I’d share one of my own pictures of those bars, but I never got a chance to take any pictures. That’s how quickly they went - and I don’t mean down the disposal.
January 17th, 2008 at 6:50 am
Hum, no, they don’t look very appetizing.
January 17th, 2008 at 8:36 am
It looks MOLDY!
January 17th, 2008 at 8:41 am
I have to say - doesn’t look all that tempting…
January 17th, 2008 at 9:10 am
um…i like you and all, but if i asked you for a cupcake, and you handed me that, i’d probably hit you. really hard.
January 17th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Oh dear. I had a muffin look like that… after I’d put it in a baggie and forgot about it for a week (or maybe 2).
January 17th, 2008 at 10:48 am
OK, yeah, that looks really nasty. I’ll skip that one in the book!
January 17th, 2008 at 11:17 am
I bought that cookbook in a rush of enthusiasm…still haven’t used it. Gotta say…after looking at that muffin, I’m not all that inclined to break it open.
January 17th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Yes, I did think of mold, ewww. And even grosser, it reminded me of a chocolate I took a bite of recently. Didn’t realize truffles could get moldy, this was white chocolate with what I thought was green food coloring or something on top - yuck, yuck!!!
January 17th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Looks more like a blue cheese cupcake. I think I’ll stick to her brownies…
January 17th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
I’m a fan of spinach, but in cupcakes? Not thinking so.
January 17th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
I love spinach and I love blueberries, but the thought of pureeing them and putting them in cupcakes is almost repulsive to me. I’m glad you showed the photo. Not very delicious looking to me, either.
January 17th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
I second the person that said it looks moldy. ew!
January 17th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
BOTH of those recipes were on my list for the next recipes from the book to try. I have had great luck with all the recipes I have made so far. Looks like I will be crossing the one recipe out!
Have you tried the banana bread yet? My kids and I thought it was fine but bland and it didn’t taste very banana-ish.
January 17th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Wow. That doesn’t look appetizing at all. I’ll pass on that recipe. Thanks for the heads up.
January 17th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Oh yeah…that looks like the six-month-old eggplant I found at the back of my fridge. My sister’s goats wouldn’t eat it.
Did you squeeze the moisture out of the spinach? And then try substituting hunks of Godiva chocolate for the spinach? That might work.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
that is so gross
January 18th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
“And none of the other recipes in Deceptively Delicious have required an altitude adjustment.”
When I first read that sentence I totally thought it said “attitude adjustment”-ha!!
The Blueberry Oatmeal bars are good? You swear? Because that cupcake is scaring me.
January 18th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Oh man, that’s a good one.
I’m laughing so hard, I have TEARS! TEARS running down my face.
..even they know cupcakes aren’t supposed to be green…
Priceless.
January 18th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Ewwww! I like The Sneaky Chef’s recipes better, but I like the actual cook book and pictures in Deceptively Delicious. They have pretty similar recipes in the two, but The Sneaky Chef has a really good Chocolate pancake recipe that is SO GOOD with spinach and blueberries!
January 21st, 2008 at 8:27 am
Now that’s just nasty.
I reviewed Deceptively Delicious and The Shrek Cookbook and the Shrek Cookbook was way, WAY better. Better pictures, better recipes, more kid friendly. Why the hell isn’t THE SHREK COOKBOOK on Oprah????!!!!
Seriously, Shrek knows cookbooks.
January 21st, 2008 at 1:14 pm
I made a birthday cake a couple of days ago for my 16 year old. It was a marble cake, and I used blue and green food dye. It was the most florescent thing you’ve ever seen. The kids loved it.
They’ll eat green cake, kids will. It just has to be the green of luminous radiation, not of spinach…
February 3rd, 2008 at 11:17 am
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July 6th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
This recipe botched for me too. Same horrible dark green color, they completely fell in the middle (i left out the filling), not completely cooked, and too sweet. I think the flour amoutn is off - maybe it should be 2 cups. The rice balls recipe doesn’t tell you when to include the rest of the ingredients either so I’m suspicious on the accuracy of that one. The recipes were supposedly tested personnaly by Ms. Seinfeld.