I recently made about 4 dozen cuppycakes for my awesome work peeps who have really pulled through on a few projects lately. They deserved some sugary, gooey, yummy recognition. Inspired by Hallmark Valentine's Day, and given my oh-so-awesome track record with cookies, I opted for cupcakes. I also had some fun icing tools that had never been used that I wanted to play with. The only real danger here is that I had never actually made cupcakes before, let alone decorated then all pretty like. I went the training-wheels route and used boxed cake mix. But the rest was all-natural. Er, all-homemade. The icing was a recipe that my Mom made growing up. It's true perfection. It's super sweet, but not too sweet. And it sets up nicely without getting rock hard. I love this stuff.
Cake Ingredients:
Favorite yellow cake mix in the box
Each box is typically 3 eggs + 1/3c vegetable oil
Icing Ingredients (per batch, I made about 6 batches):
1 egg white
1/4c margarine (I know, ick, but who am I to mess with perfection)
2.5 - 2.75 c powdered sugar
Food coloring
Filling Ingredients (optional, here's what I used):
Buttercream frosting + lemon extract
Creamcheese frosting + strawberry preserves
Materials:
Mixer
Lots of little bowls and dishes and spoons and knives
Patience while mixing the icing
Decorating tools for the icing (I used disposable icing bags and a few different tips)
Optional - other goodies for the tops of the cuppycakes (I used decorating sugar, sprinkles, strawberry puffs from Williams-Sonoma, candied orange slices, and spice drops)
Optional - cupcake corer (if you want to fill the cupcakes with gooey filling)
Directions:
1) Make the cake mix per box instructions. Feel extremely clever that everyone will think you made these from scratch. Pour batter into lined cupcake baking trays. Bake, cool, etc., etc.
2) If you want a gooey-surprise in the middle, you'll need to core out the center of each cuppycake. I used a handy device from Williams-Sonoma. Yes, I'm an impulse shopper. I suppose you could also use your fingers to pinch out the center. Eat all the yummy cores. To test the deliciousness of the cake, of course.
3) Make the filling and stuff into the holes. For the orange/yellow cakes I mixed buttercream frosting (Betty-Crocker in a can, shhh) with lemon extract (another Williams-Sonoma impulse buy). For the pink cakes I mixed creamcheese frosting (I love you Betty-Crocker!) with organic strawberry preserves. The organic part is really important here. It completely offsets all of the sugar and chemicals. Don't believe me? Well then, that's your problem.
4) Wait for husband or kids to get home to mix up the frosting. The trick is to mix the powdered sugar in a little bit at a time, and to have Popeye-like forearms. It should be really thick and a total pain in the ass. I've been reading up on things like aperture and shutter speed and lighting, but for now, you're stuck with photos like this one:
5) Use your ninja decorating skills to create mini-masterpieces.
6) Try one to make sure they do indeed pass the "made from scratch" taste test.
Enjoy!
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