Sugar Play

Please indulge me as I (briefly) gush about my extraordinary “niece.”

Before heading off to begin her new life as a Penn State student, I was lucky enough to enjoy an afternoon of lunch, cupcake fun, and lots of laughter with this smart, funny, lovely (etc., etc.) lady and her equally fabulous mom. 

I just love luring people into my world of sugar play.

 Hard at work crafting mini works of art.

Look, it’s a gum paste rose!  (How can you not love this gal?)

Frosting the cupcakes - the girl's a natural.

Flowers and leaves artfully placed by the graphic design student.

Lemon Cupcakes (adapted from Pillsbury Kitchens’ Cookbook)

1 ¼ c flour

1 ½ t baking powder

½ t salt

¾ c sugar

½ c milk

Juice of 1 lemon

Zest of 1 lemon

1/3 c butter, softened

1 t vanilla

1 egg yolk

1 egg

Preheat oven to 350° and put liners in muffin tin.

Combine all ingredients except vanilla and eggs in a large bowl, then beat 2 minutes at medium speed.  Add vanilla and eggs and beat for 2 more minutes.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for about 15 minutes, until cupcakes spring back from a light touch.

Makes 12 cupcakes.

Strawberry Frosting

1 c butter, softened

1 c shortening

1 t vanilla

2 T milk

4 c (1 lb box) powdered sugar

Pinch of salt

¼ c frozen strawberries, thawed

Beat butter, shortening, vanilla, and milk until light and fluffy.  Add sugar and salt and beat until well combined.  Puree the strawberries and stir into the frosting.

You'll have plenty of left over frosting.  I'll show you what I did with it in my next post.

Baby Shower and a Frosting Tip

 And here is the final cake project of the month.  I made three dozen orange crush cupcakes (rememberthose?) with teeny, tiny gum paste toppers for a baby shower.

 

Because the toppers were small, I used fine point food coloring markers to add the details.

I also tested an AMAZING tip from Dollar Store Crafts that I discovered on Pinterest.  How on earth did I manage before Pinterest?

Generally, I don’t mind getting messy and sticky while playing with food.  It’s all part of the process. However, after the glow of another successful cake has worn off, dealing with a messy clean-up is another matter altogether.

 

Instead of filling the frosting bags, scoop the frosting onto a piece of plastic wrap.

Wrap the plastic wrap around the frosting and twist the ends closed (check out the video).

Put the coupler in the bag like you usually do and drop the wrapped frosting inside, pulling one of the twisted ends through the end.

Snip off the plastic tail and attach the frosting tip.

Clean-up is even easier – just pull the plastic out of the bag.  Genius!