I’ve been using Wilton Color Mist spray on food coloring for a while now. They make decorating easy and everyone thinks I’m a magician. But now they have pearl Color Mist, and this one is hard to beat! It gives the frosting a shimmering look, just perfect for the princess parties in your future! And as a bonus, it made my hand look a little like the tin man.
You slave all day to make the perfect chocolate cupcakes, and then when they come out of the oven, your white wrappers have turned to an unappetizing shade of brown. Or worse, you spend a bunch of money on Elmo cupcake wrappers for your kid’s birthday party, but when they come out of the oven, you can’t see Elmo. All you can see is the color of the cupcake. Because of these tragedies, I’ve been using foil cupcake wrappers for any cupcakes that will leave the house. And I’ve just discovered a pretty snazzy version of foil wrappers–Wilton Color Cups. There are many cool patterns to choose from, and they work! The wrappers come out of the oven just as pretty as they went in. I tested them out!
Good Morning ATC Community! and welcome to the official start of crunch time. These are the days that we second-guess whether we did enough of everything and end up doing too much!
If you’re like me, you’ve baked a fair amount of holiday treasures.
But holiday week is a bit like a marathon and, in the home stretch, who isn’t looking for fresh ideas to keep inspired? The challenge I set to myself is whether I can come up with a week of images, recipes, and instructions to keep us all – myself included – at 350F from now through next Saturday.
These Baked Ideas images are cookies, but so fresh and original they will inspire your cupcake decorating ideas. Here’s a smorgasbord of cookie decorating ideas from “Baked Ideas” by Patti Paige, along with the Baked Ideas’ Facebook page and the video on the Baked Ideas mini gingerbread houses. 3,000 each season!
If you’re still looking for last minute gifts, Baked Ideas even sells yoga cookie cutters. How did she do that? Here’s her video on piping royal icing onto each one of the yoga posed gingerbread men and here’s the Baked Ideas gingerbread recipe.
Ah-ha! My Muse gripped that one!
Today, I’m going to springboard those Baked Ideas into spice cupcakes with yoga shapes drawn on the top, including some Sandskrit symbols, such as “Namaste.” And I know just who is on my list for these yoga cupcakes…
Now that’s what I mean about taking inspiration and giving yourself permission to be creative at the holidays! What’s your idea?
Countdown: 6 days.
Is it possible to cupcake topping your way to happiness?
Let’s start with the basics: a white cupcake with a white frosting. Vanilla-on-vanilla, and I’m going to add a little vanilla ice cream. Vanilla signals simple, uncomplicated, neat, cool enjoyment.
Put mini M&Ms on that same vanilla-on-vanilla cupcake, and it’s a game changer! It’s not just adding the chocolate of the candies. It’s adding everything associated with rainbow-colored M&Ms, like childhood, blue skies, remembering the brown ones, and even reminiscing about UK Smarties.
Likewise, take the Crumbs Bake Shop cupcake “Good Guy.” How do I know, just by looking at it that it will be good? It’s vanilla cupcake, vanilla frosting, rainbow sprinkles, and white drizzle. Think Glinda, the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz.
Or, how about tye die and peace sign cupcakes at Cupcakes by Carousel? Now there’s a sure-fire way to make me smile. I don’t even think that there’s a flavor associated with this visual, but it signals to my whole being: “Don’t worry – be happy!”
Cupcake with a smiley face, anyone?
The Om of Cupcake
Who isn’t living a totally over-committed life these days? If you can’t slow down, especially while you’re whipping up buttercream frosted cupcakes for end of school year parties, can I persuade you to steal a quiet moment with a cupcake?
Here’s my recipe for the Om of Cupcakes. Take one part chocolate raspberry-infused buttercream cupcake and add one part local coffee shop with a window seat. Omit cell phone; substitute “oops!” if you later see missed calls. Variation includes reading a copy of “Hello, Cupcake!” or “What’s New Cupcake?”
This recipe for about twenty minutes of relaxation should be repeated daily to enjoy the full, long-term benefits.
Do you want to learn the secret behind 3D chocolate decorations? Well I am about to tell you. Well actually not me but The Lone Baker.
If you have not heard of her, she is worth finding out about. Her whole website is dedicated to amazing tips and tricks to do with cupcake decoration and did I say she is amazing?
So to the 3D chocolate spirals, well, the trick is Vodka, but I don’t want to shatter the mystery, take a visit to her site to check it out. You may have piped chocolate swirls onto baking paper before, but they are flat, two dimensional pieces, where as these, well you see!
The carrot cake has been around for ages as one of those classic staple cakes that your mom or your nan used to bake when you were a kid. It is a cake that has stood the test of time and is still an autumn favorite. The only problem, is when baked as a cake or as cupcake it just doesn’t really appeal like other cupcakes do.
Well The Crafty Penguin has the answer and you can use her fantastic technique on other cakes such as the banana cake or sponge, to take them from big and boring down to cupcake size, then pipe some life into them with the frosting. The complete recipe is provided as is a guide on how to finish off the cupcakes with cute gumpaste carrots. As you can see these little deserts would be a great way to end any dinner party! See the full photo tutorial here.
Toolkit for Tasty Filled Cupcakes :)
I was paging through the Uncommon Goods catalog the other day when I came across this cupcake corer and decorating set. You can find decorating sets and kits all over the place, but I thought that the corer that’s included in this kit set it apart. Getting just the right-sized filling hole in a cupcake can be fussy, possibly crumbling the cupcake in the process.
In case you’re skeptical about this corer’s usefulness or the quality of the kit in general, Uncommon Goods did a gift lab on this product to see how well it worked. While
Finished Filled Cupcakes!
a manufacturer’s take on their own product isn’t exactly objective, the post is pretty informative about the kit’s performance.
You’ll want to click the link to get the long version, the short version is that the cupcakes weren’t picture perfect, but they turned out better than they would have without the kit. All in all, it sounds like it’s worth the $20 price tag if you’re into making filled cupcakes on a regular basis.
Anyone who has checked out Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit‘s website knows there’s a standard protocol she follows. She creates cupcake recipes then blogs about the recipe and images that correlate. Recenly she deviated from her standard formula with a post that I thought allthingscupcake readers would find helpful. She has five steps that she suggest cupcake bakers follow when baking in bulk. These steps include finding inspiration and coming up with a high level plan, writing out all recipes, preparing a plan and the ingredients, preparing all the recipes and storing them for final assembly, and finally assembling, packing for delivery, unpacking, and presenting. For details on these tips be sure to visit Chockylit’s website.
photo courtesy of CakeJournal
When I was tooling around CakeJournal‘s site after getting info about Louise’s cupcake needle felt pillows, I found her collection of cake decorating tutorials. This made me happy because it reminded me that the creation of fancy cupcake decorations are indeed within even my beginner’s grasp.
In my quest to find new and interesting cupcake news for ATC, I see the incredible craft and artistry that goes into decorating cupcakes and cakes. I’m always impressed by the creativity of these pieces. However, most of the time I can’t say that I find inspiration in them because it often looks like a level of composition and sculpture that’s well out of my league. I think that CakeJournal’s collection of tutorials is just the thing to bridge that gap.
Cupcake Poop! (picture courtesy of the Cupcake Project)
I was a little confused when I saw the word “poop” titling a post with a picture of delicious looking crispy cookies. But I guess everyone has their own terminology for the little bits of batter that end up on the edges of the cupcake pan and get cooked up into tasty crispy treats.
Cupcake Project gives us the scoop on the poop, or rather, how to bake it up on purpose rather than just relying on serendipitous accident:
These are so cool! Oh my gosh, I just have to try this! I don’t have much of a green thumb, but these “plants,” I can handle!
KansasCity.com featured a post recently on these delightful flowerpot cupcakes!
We have Bernard Shondell of Roeland Park to thank for these tasty works of art. If you’d like to try to create your own, here are his words of advice:
•Place paper cupcake liners in the bottom of clean, preferably new, flowerpots to cover the hole.
•Line pots with parchment paper or foil.
•Fill about 2/3 full with your favorite cake batter.
•Place the pots in an empty cake pan for stability, and bake about 20 minutes at 350 degrees.
•Once cooled, tint your favorite icing and spread on top of the cake to form a smooth dome. With a star or rose tip, pipe “petals” on top.
•An alternative to piping the top is to flatten gum drops with a rolling pin (use granulated sugar so they won’t stick); then arrange the flattened candy as “petals” on the top.
•Add green icing leaves or a green bow to complete the look.
•Garnish with an edible wafer paper butterfly, available at Fancy Flours!
Last August Cake Journal had a series of posts on Cupcake Decorating as part of a “How To” section. I thought these tips might be helpful for anyone struggling with their cupcakes. In part one, her favorite tool of the trade are discussed. Part two moves on to the author’s personal favorite cupcake recipes. For step three, you learn how to create buttercream domes and fondant circles. Finally part four teaches you how to swirl! If you have additional tips or advice, please share!
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Chocolate Olive Oil & Blood Orange Cupcakes, Feb./Olive Oil Cupcake Hero!
One issue that cupcakes and cupcake lovers have to perpetually face is that our favorite tasty pastry treat isn’t exactly healthy. But what can you do? One answer that’s been floating around cupcake circles is to use olive oil in place of shortening or butter. While there’s still more than enough sugar to go around (but let’s be honest, we are working with desserts here), olive oil is great for heart health with it being all full of bad-cholesterol-removing monounsaturated fat & delicious antioxidants.
There are a lot of recipes out there, but some of the most interesting & well documented I found via I Heart Cupcakes February [Olive Oil] Cupcake Hero. It looks like there’s not much lost in translation from shortening/butter to olive oil: all the entries look and sound fantastic!
Basil Infused Olive Oil Cupcakes with White Wine
I especially like Cupcake Project’s entry, Basil-Infused Olive Oil Cupcakes with White Wine – that kind of flavor combination in a cupcake sounds intriguing. Cupcake Project also has a recipe for Lemon & Thyme Olive Oil Cupcakes with Balsamic Vinegar Whipped Cream. I am a big fan of balsamic vinegar, and I can definitely see how the sweet tang of the balsamic would work beautifully with whipped cream.
If these semi-savory recipes don’t sound like your cup of…cupcake, I Heart Cupcake’s February Cupcake Hero gives you plenty more to choose from. Three cheers for this month’s heart-healthier Cupcake Heroes!
Annie of Frites and Fries brings us these tasty treats, an invention she created for her roommate. Not only does she give us lots of delicious looking pictures, she includes her recipe in her post, an altered version of the butter cake recipe featured in Gourmet in 2008 with Slashfood’s cream cheese frosting. And that wee little cinnamon roll on top just makes it as cute as all get out (yes, Annie has a recipe for that too!). This opens the door to a some other interesting alterations of the base butter cake recipe…crumb cupcakes, anyone?
Picture this you have 10 seconds to live … what do you want the most in the world? Well if you answered a CUPCAKE than I have the fastest way to decorate a cupcake! I found these tips in the February issue of Woman’s Day!
Red Velvet Cupcakes
As I was walking past some storefronts this afternoon, I noticed something I had never seen before: a cupcake calendar. My boyfriend confirmed that while this was the first year he had seen it too, the Hello, Cupcake! calendar is in stores all over town. It’s sort of a companion to the Hello, Cupcake (Irresistably Playful Creations Anyone Can Make) book, being as it’s made by the same folks out of their favorite illustrations from the book. From the pictures on their website (the little doggiecakes are the on front cover of the calendar), it looks like a darn cute way of keeping track of the days as well as a serving as a muse for the creative in the kitchen.
My roommates birthday was today and I asked her what kind of cupcakes she wanted for her birthday and she said, ” Cheesecake!!” and I said, “I can make that happen!” … So I made my famous cheesecake into mini cakes!
Grocery List
From your Cupboards
And GO!
Heat the oven to 325 degrees, find yourself 12 cupcake liners and place them into a cupcake pan! Take vanilla wafer and put one in the bottom of each liner. And then add a sprinkle of chocolate chips on top of the wafer. In a bowl add the cream cheese, 2 eggs, 2/3 cup of sugar and 3 tablespoons lemon juice. Mix until smooth and there are no lumps. Disperse evenly into the cupcake liners. Place a spoonful of raspberry jam on-top of each of the cheesecakes and then add another sprinkle of the chocolate chips as well. Place in oven for about 30-35 minutes. After they are done cooking leave in cupcake pan until they have cooled all the way through and then place in fridge over night.
And ENJOY!
I brought them to work for my roomie and for everyone to enjoy and the went over very well. One of my co-workers said it was very satisfying.
Here is a photo!
I found myself feeling very stressed-out today so I did what I always do when I am feeling that way: I went cupcake hunting. One of my favorite places to go is one of my local Hallmark stores. I can always find something sweet that I would love to own. Even if I don’t buy everything I see, it cheers me up just to look at cupcakes. Here’s what I found today:
Hallmark had these for each month and at a very reasonable price of only $8 each.
I have several shops that I frequent just looking for cupcake items. Some of my favorites are Kohl’s, Pier 1, and Target. Cupcake bakeries can often double your pleasure. Many times you will not only find yummy cupcakes to eat, but they often have cupcake clothing and knick-knacks for sale. Online I can always find interesting things on Amazon, Etsy and Ebay.
On the way home from my hunt I got to thinking; I wonder where our ATC readers like to go cupcake hunting? Where do they find good cupcake stuff? So let’s hear from you! Click on the comment area below and let us know your hot spots!
None of these cupcake tips in Newsweek magazine from Pam Nelson, owner of Butter Lane Bakery, were that ground-breaking, but these tips have a smack yourself in the forehead simplicity. You can imagine if all the suggestions were followed, how much better tasting your cupcakes can be. The tips are:
– Use the best butter you can find
– When possible use real ingredients not extracts or artificial substitutes
– Use real chocolate over cocoa powder
– Frosting does not have to be teeth-shattering sweet
– Wrap your cupcakes after baking to preserve moistness
I, just like some of you am an avid cupcake baker. To make marvelous, mouthwatering, munch-able cupcakes you have to have some good tools. Here are a few of my favorite tools I like to use when baking cupcakes.
This right here is essential for frosting cupcakes. It is angled so you don’t get your finger and hands all covered in frosting.
8 Inch Angled Spatula
Another way to frost cupcakes is to use the plastic bags with the tips. Here is a good starter kit for cupcakes. It comes with a few tips to get you started and you can make fancy designs with it!
Cupcake Decorating Kit
This is the way to get all the last bits of cake batter and frosting.
Spatula
Instead of using good old fashioned food coloring that get very messy you can you use this Icing Color Set! Plus it has some of the colors already figured out for you! (using food coloring i think you have to be a color chemist to get the righ colors you want).
12 Icing Colors Set
These spray mists are a great way to do a lil’ something different with your cupcakes
Color Mist™ Food Color Spray
This is a great way to carry you treats … bonus is that it has a cupcake pan with it!
24-Cup Cupcake Carrier
These are some of my faveorite tools! Do you have any secret weapons you use in the kitchen?
Upon one of my cupcake searches I found this lovely twist on cupcakes.
Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes!
Here is what you would need to replicate this delicious cupcakes …
1) A scrumptious cake recipe. I recommend Straberry Cupcake Recipe
2) A simple frosting recipe (better to color you with my dear) Buttercream Frosting
3) Tools to frost with Cupcake Decorating Kit ( this includes the disposable bags and tips to decorate, use the 1M tip to get the swirly ice cream effect) this includes a great tutorial as well!
4) This is how you make a rainbow of colors Icing Color Set (you can also use just plain old food coloring if you don’t want to spend that much, ya just got to get creative with the colors)
5) Top it off with these Star Sprinkles , Daisy Sprinkles and/or Confetti Sprinkles ( you can choose which ones you want according to the color of frosting used) or you can go old school with these Rainbow Jimmies
Bake the cake, prepare the frosting, cool the cake, fill the bags, frost & sprinkle away!
Let me know how they turn out!
Psst … If you dont want to spend all the money on the expensive stuff you can just with all the boxed goodies (boxed cake, canned frsoting, etc. [it will just be our little secret] )
Many of our readers are already pros at whipping up batches of cupcakes for any occasion; however, I would bet that some of you out there may still be learning all the tips and tricks. If you find this post helpful, please comment, and I will continue to share tips.
Cupcake Tip #1: Keeping Cupcakes Fresh
If you want to keep your cupcakes fresh and soft DO NOT put them in the refrigerator, it will dry them out. You may put the unfrosted cupcakes in a container and wrap container in saran wrap to freeze them.
Then if you need to whip up a quick snack, take out the frozen cupcakes, and immediately start frosting and decorating. When done, place on a plate in room temperature for an hour or two to thaw. Tastes just like fresh cupcakes.