With All My Hearts

Since the cupcakes turned out super ugly.  I thought this would make a better main photo for this post.  

Besides, piping the hearts was the funnest part of this entire project.

Oh, and when I say the cupcake is ugly . . . I mean it could totally win a "World's Ugliest Cupcake" Award.

And here it is  . . .

Valentine cupcake, with a delicate heart atop horribly piped chocolate/vanilla frosting sprinkled with gold sugar and gold dragees.

Although I learned a lot again, these cupcakes still didn't turn out how I had envisioned. I visualized a majestic mound of frosting glittered with gold. So I practiced with my large round piping tip. Although the mound, itself, looked great, since it was chocolate frosting, it totally looked like something else - it'd be rude to describe what I'm talking about but I think you get the picture: a big round pile of brown smush. . .

Okay so here's what I learned:

1. Although bakers say you don't need to place foil liners in a muffin pan (you just set them on a cookie sheet), don't do it, unless you have super-duper hefty-strong foil liners. Otherwise they totally lay out and the cupcake ends up being 4 inches wide and only 1 inch tall. I smushed the warm cupcakes into the blue carrier so that they could look more like a cupcake.

2. Soy sour cream works great. :) I didn't have regular so I snuck in the soy stuff. My secret.

3. Piping frosting with a small flower decorating tip (the one I used) is not ideal for large cupcake tops. For larger frosting, you need the larger tip, which I discovered I had after I organized my cupcake drawer this afternoon. . .

4. If your chocolate frosting is too soft, you can mix it with the thicker vanilla frosting and it'll be just fine.

5. Chocolate frosting (with melted chocolate) will get unmanageably hard in the fridge. I should have figured that one out (butter and chocolate are pretty hard when they're cold).

6. Tinting melted white chocolate is an almost impossible task. The chocolate will coagulate or something and not melt again - ever.

7. Colored melting chocolate works great! Use it!

8. Piping hearts takes practice & technique, but is fun.

9. Piped hearts are dry very quickly and are very fragile. Make lots of extras.

10. Always make extra frosting.

Originally I thought I'd do Red Velvet with chocolate frosting. But after doing some research, I decided that it's always paired with a cream cheese frosting. So I changed my mind, last minute. I also didn't do the spun sugar because I saw these delicate little hearts somewhere and liked them better.

The plan was to set them all out on these little heart doilies but that didn't work out since most of the people at Joe's work had already gone home for the day so they didn't get set out on people's desk. Oh well. Maybe next time.

My plan for next month is: green foil liners, green cake with chocolate ganache glaze covered with green sprinkles topped with a fuzzy green clover sticker on a toothpick. I already have April planned too, in honor of Maci's birthday. Guess we'll have to wait for more info on that one.

Meatloaf Cupcakes

These are savory cupcakes that I saw somewhere. It's meatloaf on the bottom,

mashed potatoes on top, with a grape tomato garnish.

Maci loved them! It was her first taste of mashed potatoes.

This picture isn't terribly clear but I thought it was pretty funny. Like I said, she LOVED them!
Here's what I learned about making these:
1. Since I used veggie burger, they weren't very greasy so they totally stuck to the wrappers.
2. Mashed potatos should be piped onto the cupcakes with a large round tip.
3. Tomatoes are yummy, but frozen green peas would also be tasty and cute.
4. Next time, I'll make them as my husband suggested: I'll make a ball of meatloaf, place it on a cookie sheet, bake it in the oven then smush it into the cupcake wrapper. That way it won't stick.

2010 Cupcake

Here it is! My first attempt at a "made-from-scratch" cupcake. Not exactly the grand & majestic cupcake I envisioned, but fun, none-the-less!

I learned so much from my first attempt. For example, cutting out all the numbers with those tiny little cutters can bruise your hand. I learned tons more too:

1. Making the batter from scratch is considerably more extensive and time-consuming than using a boxed mix.

2. You can't do this kind of project without a Stand Mixer. (Okay, maybe you can, but if that's true then you can also wash your clothes by hand, without a washing machine)

3. It takes many bowls to make frosted cupcakes the right way.

4. Using egg whites to make a meringue that you then "fold" into the batter is pretty fun!

5. Butter is used in large quantities. No oil, like in the boxed mixes.

6. The frosting is also incredibly fun to make and requires much butter.

7. Cake flour is very "floury" and way puffier to use than regular flour.

8. Cupcakes from scratch should only be made when toddlers and babies are asleep. Boxed mixes should be used when your 4-year-old wants to help.

9. Fondant should be rolled then allowed to dry for 30 minutes before cutting it out with those tiny little bruise-making cutters. Otherwise the fondant will gum up when you're trying to push the letters out of the cutter.

10. Using a little spatula or other item to push the cutter into the hardened fondant will save you a bruised hand.

11. Piping frosting onto the cupcake is exactly as fun as I always hoped it would be. :