Cupcake Adventures of two AC Bloggers
4/20/2011 11:41:00 AM
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AC,
cake,
cupcakes,
fun,
Sugar,
sweet
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comments
The culinary world is a buzz with its newest favorite craze. Cupcakes.What is not to like about these darlings? They are personal sized cakes thatcan be decorated to be anything the baker can think of. From basketballs to TVdinners, flower baskets to faces. If you have the time and the talent, you can makeyour cupcakes be anything.Personally, I love cupcakes. Anything that is a miniature version of somethingis awesome in my book.A couple of weeks ago, Brittney and I were talking about doing a joint blogpost. Something that was both creative and fun, something that we could make andshow off. After much debate we decided to make cupcakes. From there we made aquick trip to the magical Internet to get some ideas about what we would be making.There, we realized we just aren’t as creative or artistic as some of these people.
I couldn't make this if I tried
I couldn't make this if I tried There are cupcake artists who can create the coolest things on top of acupcake. We are just not that talented nor did we have years to dedicate to the art ofcupcake decoration.We decided to make two flavors of cupcakes- Red Velvet and White WeddingCake. Let me just say that wedding cake is the best flavor of cake. I could eat it allday every day. The plan originally was for us to make 24 of each flavor cupcake, fora total of 48. There was a flaw in the plan. We wrongly assumed that the recipe wasright and the yield amount was correct. The recipe lied. We had nearly 70 cupcakes,mostly red velvet; it took seven hours from start to finish to create our mini cakemasterpieces. I think we have a legitimate future in the world of cupcake-making, or at least cupcake-eating.
This was an impressive mess. I don't think there has ever been a bigger cupcake mess
Seven hours of cupcake baking, decorating and taste-testing…It was pretty intense and my kitchen was nothing short of a disaster afterward. I can’t complain though, I had a blast. Andrea and I might not be professional cupcake-bakers, but I have to admit I was pretty impressed by the final products overall.
Sure, there were a few ugly ones, but they were delicious none the less and we even wound up with some darn good-looking cupcakes. We had cupcakes that looked like lady bugs, Pokeballs and landscapes and seascapes…there was even one with a badger face on it in honor of the AC mascot. There were cupcakes topped with cream cheese icing, buttercreamicing, sprinkles and/or fondant. We got pretty crafty!
A few things we learned during our cupcake adventure:
- Fondant is frustrating to work with and tastes like Play-Doh…onlysweet instead of salty (yes, I ate Play-Doh as a kid and I know you didtoo).
- No matter how much time is spent Googling cupcake decorating ideas and how much stuff you buy at Wal-Mart to create what you’ve found…it’s not going to turn out how you initially envisioned.We used some of the ideas, but about 60 of the 70 or so cupcakes made illustrate our own creativity coming into play. It’s more fun
improvising, anyway.
- The recipe only provides guidelines. Andrea knows this… Good thing she made the cupcakes and I just observed. She could just look at the batter and know it needed more this or that… She did well!
- Chips and queso = the perfect snack to balance out all of the sweettaste-testing.Making the mess is fun and easy…cleaning up, not so much.
- There is no better way to spend a Saturday afternoon/evening with a good friend, just laughing and having a good time. We all need to take a break and have some fun.
You made me a cupcake and I didn't get to eat it!
I can make you another one. Although I made you a shield to make up for it. I taped it to your door.
I did love the shield but it did not taste good. The red velvet cake was much more delicious.