Starting with the Classics

Cupcake:             Classic Chocolate Cupcake

Frosting:              Vanilla Buttercream

*Music:                 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Greatest Hits

  *Music always make the baking experience a bit more enjoyable*

                For my first baking experience, I chose to go with a Classic Chocolate Buttercream cupcake (slight variation from the frosting recipe labeled in the book). My best friend and favorite baking assistant, Tory, helped me with the project and also let me use her kitchen. Thanks love!

Ingredients/Equipment Needed:                                                                                       

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened 
•  1 cup sugar
• 1 ½ cups self-rising flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 4 tbsp. cocoa powder
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

• 18 paper baking cups and cupcake pans
• 2 cans of Buttercream frosting
• Fondant and colored dyes
• Cookie cutters
• Decorating tips and pastry bags (2 each)
• Sprinkles

Instructions:

1.     First, you preheat the oven to 350°F – this is somewhat important so don’t forget this step.
2.     Place the 18 baking cups in the cupcake pans - may require additional assistance <sarcasm>
3.     Combine all ingredients – butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, cocoa, eggs, and vanilla – in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer for 2-3 minutes.  I noticed that the batter itself was extremely thick at this point (no milk in the recipe) but went with it.  

4.     Spoon the batter into the cups until each is 2/3 full. Although we didn’t have one at the time, I would highly recommend using a large ice cream scoop for this step, so that each cupcake liner is equally full.
5.     Bake for 20 minutes. Because the cakes turned out to be extremely dry (think a whole gallon of milk needed to put down one cake), I would recommend two things: A) add chocolate pudding or milk to the batter mixture, or B) bake for 15 minutes and check to see if done.
6.     Remove pans and cool on a wire rack until room temperature. If you don’t let them cool long enough, the frosting may begin to melt and slide off of the cake.

 Decorating:

1.     Take three pieces of the fondant (think 2/3rds of a golf ball) and roll into balls.  Push your thumb into one ball, making a small indent, and add a small amount of dye to the center. This is the part where we should have put on gloves, but I forgot to buy them. Instead, we used sandwich bags which worked just as well. 

2.     Work the dye into the fondant until the color is solid and no white can be seen. I’m not going to detail just how much dye you should use, because really, you should figure this out yourself. Like my grandmother always says, real recipes that taste the best are never measured exactly.
3.     Using a rolling pin (which we also did not have), roll out the colored fondant and use the cookie cutters to make flower and butterfly cut-outs. Set aside and let harden.

 
4.     Take ½ cup of the buttercream frosting (I used “Decorator’s Frosting” – available at Michael’s) and dye it yellow. Place this in the pastry bag (with the tip inside). I would highly recommend not forgetting to put the tip in before the frosting, because that gets messy and frustrating real quick.
5.     Fill the second pastry bag (with tip inside) until capacity with the white buttercream frosting.
6.     Swirl your cupcakes with the white frosting. Use your imagination here! You can go with a single swirl (think Meijer cupcakes) or a triple swirl (think the infamous Gigi’s Swirl). I chose to compromise and a finished with a double swirl, using a Wilton 1M tip.
7.     Sprinkle to your heart’s desire.
8.     After the fondant has hardened, place on the cupcakes in a whimsical manner.

Optional: Assemble a miniature cupcake tower (holds 13 cupcakes) and place finished cupcakes in designated areas.

Tory and I: “Let’s use the mini screwdriver that came with the kit to assemble the tower!”
Josh Cope: “That’s not a screwdriver, that’s called a wrench” 

 

 
Conclusion:        

Overall, the cupcakes turned out to be really cute and a fun way to celebrate the summertime, aka the "horrible heat index outside that makes you feel like you’re having a heat stroke before you make it to the mailbox". Unfortunately, the cakes themselves turned out to be a little on the dry side (think Sahara desert). I would recommend altering the recipe to include a splash of milk, cream, or chocolate pudding to make it a bit more moist.

Next Up: Soy Milk Muffins

My Opinion on Important Worldly Matters:

Britain, not even a serious phone hacking at the News of the World can make your politics interesting enough for me to care.                  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14131555

Hasta luego camaradas!                  
 
Meg