Jetlag is an awful thing. Just when you think you have gotten a handle on it, you start nodding asleep at inopportune times. We had just arrived back to Sydney after a fantastic 12 day trip overseas and at 9pm that night we were fast asleep. We had, somehow, and through the miracle of travel, turned into my parents 
.
I used to love flying but nowadays find it hard to sleep on planes as I can’t sleep in a sitting up position. I’ve often traded on flights being half full and so I can stretch out along four seats and sleep to my heart’s content. I’ve thought of bringing a blow up pouf so that I can elevate my legs but Mr NQN wouldn’t let me. Something about seeming like a lunatic or something…. So instead like a good husband he became my leg rest and I found myself sleeping a good eight hours on the flight home. It didn’t stop me from waking up at a bizarre time or nodding off at rather crucial times – try a business related phone call one afternoon. My impulse to sleep was so strong that I had to beg off the phone call and crawl into bed to sleep without drawing the curtains only to be woken up by the Winter sunshine a few hours later.
After my quick trip to Los Angeles, I wanted to make something else typically American. After all I am not too secretly obsessed with the country and after burgers (and I made cheeseburger cupcakes here) I saw these American Pie cupcakes here from Cute Cupakes All The Time who featured my brain cupcakes (ok brain cupcakes aren’t really cute as such, but you hopefully get my drift). They originally made them with pie filling and fresh berries but berries aren’t in season at the moment and I didn’t want to use canned pie filling so I used jam instead. Until I visited North America I never understood how people could make berry pies as the price of fresh berries in Australia is so high. In North America I spied huge punnets of fresh blueberries for $2 whereas we would pay close to $25 for the same punnet here. Aha! So that’s how they do it! 
I made two kinds of cupcakes, one with a pie crust and one without just to see if I could upp the pieness of them. Mr NQN didn’t like the pie crust too much and to be honest I didn’t think it really needed it either so I left the pie crust out of the recipe. If you really want to make it with one, simply cut out circles in some ready made shortcrust pastry and bake it blind in the cupcake liner for 15 minutes. The cupcakes were soft and with a generous amount of my favourite jam and some buttercream on top, they satisfied my somewhat insatiable urge for Americana.
So tell me Dear Reader, any tips on combating jetlag? And do you find it hard to sleep on planes?
Miss American Pie Cupcakes
Makes 12-14
Ingredients
- 300g (2 cups) self-raising flour
- 3/4 cup caster sugar
- 80ml (1/3 cup) vegetable oil
- 1 large egg
- 175ml/6 fl oz buttermilk
- Jam in strawberry, cherry, blueberry and peach or apricot (you will need 20grams/1 oz per cupcake)
- Buttercream with a touch of brown food colouring* see recipe below
Method
1. Preheat oven to 180°C and line a cupcake tray with cupcake liners.
2. Sift the flour into a medium bowl, then add a pinch of salt and the caster sugar. In a jug, combine the vegetable oil, egg and buttermilk and whisk. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir to only just combine. It will be thick and puffy so you will need to spoon it into the cases. Fill them about 2/3 full.
3. Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
4. Slice off the top of the cupcakes so that they are flat. You could also use plain flour but I wanted a slightly aerated cupcake so I used self raising and sliced off the tops.
5. Spread jam on top of the cupcake. Then using the tinted buttercream, place in a piping bag.
6. Start off with a cross hatch pattern. That is, pipe four lines vertically and then pipe four lines horizontally. Then pipe a frill border around the cupcake to simulate a fluted pie crust.
Buttercream icing
- 100g/3.5ozs butter, softened
- 3 cups icing sugar, sifted
- 1/4 cup milk
- a little brown food colouring gel
5. For the buttercream, beat butter in a small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy, beat in colouring and then sifted icing sugar and milk in two batches until fluffy (about five minutes).
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77 Comments | Add your own
These are genius! I always wonder too, since they may be expensive for you, but they simply aren’t available here!!
cute cupcakes!!
I am lucky that jetlag doesn’t really affect me but I think the two things that probably help the most are taking red eye flights and forcing myself to adjust to the new time zone from the moment I land (and a bit of caffeine helps too)
Wow these are truly super cupcakes!They look amazing! Jetlag…I’m terrible.I am physically sick for a week after coming home,and it’s always worse when I travel West-East direction
They’re very cute! And we need all the jam recipe we can get, thanks!
Those cupcakes look sooo cute! I love the idea.
Cheers,
Rosa
Cute looking cupcakes and the star papers are just right. I am lucky and can sleep easily on a plane.
Cute!!
Oh these are so pretty! I especially like the thought you’ve put into them – from the buttercream icing design right down to the cupcake cases.
I never really get jetlagged – I’m one of those people who can just sleep whenever I need to… (not always a good thing though!)
ooooh these cakes are so delightful! I am hopeless at sleeping on planes – but I find that the only cure for jetlag is time
Cute idea!! Mmmm pie….me want!!
These are cute!!!! No tips on the jetlag – and I can sleep almost anywhere, even on planes.
Yummy.
I wish berries were that price here.
Ohhhh divine! I have to try this! As for jet lag, and sleeping on planes. Unless it is business class it is a challenge. However on our return from our US trip in May. Both my husband and I got some decent shut eye in coach which was such a surprise.
long plane rides are agonizing, all right. I am so glad I got to take business class with good food and room to stretch out my body.
Did you know there is a jetlag diet? Google it. But you have to start a week beforehand. The US army uses it because they have to go into combat as soon as they land.
What a great idea Lorraine! I smugly thought I was immune to jet-lag when we came to Sydney on holiday. But to my horror, when we moved here, I realised I wasn’t. Jetlag is evil!
Looks delicious. If I can make a suggestion – they’d be even more American if you used a peanut butter-cream icing. Then you’d have a PB&J flavour going on…
Those are the CUTEST cupcakes I’ve seen in ages, Lorraine!! Absolutely darling.
You made me smile today. 
Each time I fly on a long trip I swear I’ll pay the (exorbitant)extra amount to fly business class next time but I can never part with the money when the time comes. I really hate the squashed up torture that is economy flying on a long trip! The jetlag doesn’t both me so much.
These cupcakes are very cute and I imagine they were a good thing to focus your attention away from the after effects of flying – especially the eating of them
Ohhh! So cute!
Those cupcakes are SO cute!!! What a genius idea.
As for jetlag, after all the travelling I have had to do for work over the last 8 years I’ve taught myself to sleep on planes. It took a while, but if you can teach yourself to do it it really helps jetlag. I find listening to something relaxing on my iPhone helps, such as classical music or the iPhone app Relax with Andrew Johnson (has me out in a few minutes) http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/relax-andrew-johnson-lite/id307750844?mt=8
These are totally cutie-pies! I never would have thought of pie cupcakes. I’ve always wondered about the berries too
Those are so cute!! I think I’ll have to give them a try!
I don’t think there’s any quick fix to combatting jetlag, but I always find settling in to the time zone the best…even if it means heaps of coffee to stay awake.
Having said that, when i moved to Sydney 4 years ago I could NOT shake my jetlag. We’d been here for nearly 2 weeks and I was still falling alseep at 6:30pm…turns out though that it wasn’t jetlag at all – i was pregnant!! that’s one jetlag you don’t get over and as a result, I don’t no longer get much sleep on planes
These are seriously cute!!
I can’t sleep sitting up on planes either – but The Husband can nod off anywhere.
These are so adorable! I am going to make some using my homemade apricot jam!
I do NOT sleep well on airplanes at all!
I’ve just sat down to look at the puter, after making a batch of cupcakes myself!(almond and cardamom with lime syrup. mmmmm)and here are your yummy offerings! They look gorgeous. Think though that instead of jam I would use the fruit spread I buy in the jam section of the supermarket. No sugar in them.
When my sister and I took a prize trip to Canada a few years ago, we took Bush Flower Essence and Melatonin supps, and it seemed to work for us. I believe though(don’t quote) that if you’re travelling the other direction to England you need different help.
Welcome back Lorraine.
I’ve always heard that if you eat at the “normal” time of where ever you have travelled from, then have a short nap,then have the next meal on time with the place you’re at, you can reduce the effects of jet lag. You basically have to reset your internal clock.
I have three approaches to jetlag:
1. never fly economy class;
2. Try to work on moving to destination time even before you take off (move meal and bedtimes appropriately) and stick to destination time once on the plane; and
3. Understand that longer days are easier to adapt to than shorter days and therefore travel East to West and not the other way. It’s also easier to stay awake on the plane and go to bed when arriving, so arrive just before local bedtime.
Last big trip we did Australia – Asia – Europe – USA – back to Australia. Arrived in London from Hong Kong at about 6 pm, went to hotel and collapsed in bed and was fine the next day; arrived in San Francisco from Cairo at 5 pm and were pretty tired the next day and fine the day after, and from New York back home to Melbourne, leaving NY at 4 pm, staying awake until LA, then stayed awake for a longer as possible before sleeping over the Pacific; arrived in Sydney at 10 am bright and fresh and would have been fine to go to work the next day! The free first class upgrade really helped, mind you!
(Yes, we zig-zagged a lot, for the extra frequent flyer miles!)
Audrey
Must try this recipe! I can fall asleep in/on anything that’s loud and bumpy. I was probably conceived in a wind tunnel.
I never get jetlag. I hit the groud running at whatever time I arrive and adopt the time of the place I am in. I just don’t think about it at all. I always wear compression socks on board the plane, but apart from that I don’t do anything special.
I like the look of those cakes.
They look like lots of fun! I think my boys would be all over them in no time…
Two temazapam and a glass of bubbles helps you sleep on planes. Our other solutions to the reality of Australia being a long way from everywhere else are to keep an eye out for really cheap business class fares (thanks JAL!), combination fares (economy to Asia, business on the long haul – thanks MAS, Air France) and also stopping over for a few days on the journey home. Normally adrenaline keeps you going on the way to your destination, but coming home to piles of washing and ‘domestic bliss’ is much less exciting, so getting into the time zone and then taking the drugs for the flight home help to get through the day.
I actually had to do a double-take when I saw this post. I swear: I actually believed they were miniature lattice-topped fruit pies!
These look so adorable! What a brilliant idea
I don’t cope very well with jetlag either. Love the cupcakes with the lattice. Very very cool
Lorraine, I love how you adopt our hamburgers and pie and yet feature some of the most sophisticated food in the blogging world. Always fun and a surprise. I can sleep anywhere, especially planes. I hope you enjoyed your trip here. I lived in LA for 20 years and I’m still missing the “prices” for produce.
I like the stars cupcake liners. They match v. well! How delicious these look to me.
So so pretty cupcakes!
Sleeping on planes is awful – I’m the same as you, it’s near impossible for me to manage it sitting up. I can’t bear my neck feeling unsupported, so I can never relax.
My jetlag tip? Eat as many cupcakes as is humanly possible!
Pie cupcakes: cute as! I’m sending this recipe to Delia – cute cupcakes are her specialty.
I don’t really notice jetlag, but I also don’t travel too often, and when I do, it’s usually to party as hard as possible for a short amount of time and then fly back … so there’s really no way to tell whether I’m jet-lagged or not at the end of it all.
Oh hey, do you know a good online store that sells cute cups like those you’ve used here and will post to Melbourne?
Wonderful as usual…you are the queen of creativity!
Those look fantastic and the little cups they are in are brilliant!
Ahh they’re so cute!
I just concentrate on drinking wine and watching movies on planes!
OMG!!! i am itching to try these!
These are amazing! The detail is fantastic. The food I make tastes amazing, but it never looks that way
Luckily my body clock is permanently set on jet lag so I just don’t sleep on planes but don’t seem to suffer any ill effects (I always knew those Uni allnighters were good practice for something, hehe!)I can’t wait to see where you’ve been in the US, oh boy!
These are adorable!!!!!
Cute cupcakes. When you say the berries cost $25 do you mean US or AUS?
aaaah, now I see why the US blogs are full of fruit pies when I am all OMG they are so expensive why WASTE them in baking!
Mmmmm, fresh berries.
OMG!!!! LOVESSS the idea!! im soooo gonna make this!!
PS: i have stumble upon this recipe!
the cupcakes are jus sooo adorable! cute-as!
These are so cute!
I looked at these carefully to see if the crust was baked before realised it was buttercream – great idea!
I thought flying was so glamourous when I was little but now I am happy to have as little as possible, especially long haul. I spoke to someone just this week who had been to the UK for a week and said that he had found some drug that helped him overcome jetlag – i guess it was a no doze but can’t remember the name – you could look into these for your next trip?
That looks just super!! I actually thought that was a pie crust covering and not buttercream….! I’d agree that you wouldnt need a crust base
Really adorable little cupcake pies, Lorraine! I love the way your frosting looks like lattice pie crust. Such a cute idea.
I have never been able to sleep on planes. Once we were bumped to first class and I couldn’t sleep then either. I close my eyes, put ear plugs in, but am never completely asleep.
Have to show these to my Cupcake queen daughter, she’ll love to make them. I kinda like the Peanut butter cream suggested by Alison, that would make them soooooooo American hehe.
Jet lag can’t be avoided but you can observe a few things that may help such as: limit your alcohol intake, eat lightly and to avoid DVT, I get up every hour and walk around the plane. Sleep no, that’s for the faint-hearted, lol but Hubby is snoring as the plane takes off . I prefer to tire myself out and that more or less quarantees sleep at the other end.
So cute! It’s like a novel spin on a scone with jam and cream.
And I love Americana too – in fact i’m off to Washington and NY next week (is there anything I can get you that you can’t get in Australia?).
I can never sleep on planes for more than a few minutes here and there, but really the only way to deal with it is to get as comfortable as possible on the flight (nice toiletries, comfortable clothes, man to lean on) and then push through and try to stay awake until evening wherever you land.
Briony xx
Soooooo cute, I do wonder how you constantly come up with this great stuff. Very creative
.
I do have a hard time sleeping on the plane. My best advice is that once you get to your destination, do your upmost not to go to bed until bedtime.
*kisses* HH
This is how I felt when I endured a god-knows-how-many-hours flight from California to Melbourne. For the next couple of days, I kept waking up at 4 a.m.! And my group and I were always looking at each other and asking, “Uh, what is today? Is it Tuesday??” Hah.
I find that sunshine helps acclimate you. And working out also helps. It gives you energy and seems to help regulate your internal clock better. Beyond that, a short nap (don’t make it too long of a one or else you won’t be able to sleep in the evening)can do wonders, too.
Great idea with the jam! I always prepare sleeping tablets whenever I fly.
These are so cute! The jam filling was a great idea, and the lattice tops are fantastic.
I definitely cannot sleep on a plane. There is no pillow solution that works for me, so I always arrive tired!
will your brilliant ideas never cease? these are adorable, lorraine. well done.
Those cupcakes look amazing! Much as I share your ability to sleep on planes (or, for that matter, just about anywhere else), I seriously doubt that in the throes of jetlag I could make any cupcakes at all, let alone such lovely ones. And I do love food that looks like other types of food, too.
Hahahahah Lorriane, you rock! I love all your cupcakes and this one is no excpetion
Lorriane, hope you’ve fully recovered from jet lag. I share the same view as Mr. NQN about those blow up pillows… I cannot imagine myself blowing away to inflate those pillows on the plane… hmmm,maybe I can inflate in the toilet… The cup cakes look awesome and very American,indeed!
Gorgeous, gorgeous cupcakes!
cute ^^
What a fantastic idea! ‘Cup-pies’! (haha..corny)
I can sleep anywhere. On the plane is the only time I appreciate being short!
Another gorgeous and creative cupcake! I do a lot of travel and recommend Bauer’s Sleep and Insomnia herbs. They come in a purple and white box at health food stores, and you start taking them on the flight, and then for 3 days after you land (you take 2 tabs at each of 3pm, 6pm and before bed). They help me relax on the plane and get some sleep, and also adjust fairly quickly to the new time zone.
Oh, my gosh. You just made me so thankful for my cheap blueberries! Just another thing that I’ve been taking for granted all these years. The cupcakes are super cute! Oh, and no, I can’t sleep on planes, which always makes me dread international flights.
I love the cupcake cases, very cute! I struggle to sleep on planes too… I love it when it’s empty and you can sprawl out over a few seats!
Adorable!
Super-cuteness!
I can never really sleep on planes. On the few occasions I’ve dozed off it’s only because I’ve been lucky enough to be upgraded to business class. The reclining seats and lack of continual traffic really makes a difference, but unfortunately I can’t afford to pay the higher air fare.
There was a point where travelling by plane was like travelling by car. Whether for business or pleasure…I had gotten used to it. Skip ahead a few years since that lifestyle stopped…I’ve now become a terrible complainer. I hate flying…I never sleep and I’m incredibly cranky.
I chalk it up to hormones ;O)
I fight jetlag by making sure I avoid caffeine…drink lots of water…but mostly make sure to force myself to abide by the destination’s timezone. All this has helped alot.
Lorraine, the cupcakes might not have led to an exciting result…however, they are quite adorable ;o)
Ciao for now, Claudia
these r too cute
These are way too adorable, Lorraine, and I’m pretty sure you’re more patriotic to America than I am ;p. Good call on the jam. I find canned pie filling way too gooey and sweet.
those look awesome
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