YUMMY CUPCAKES!

I recently had the chance to consume a "professionally" made cupcake at a restaurant and it was so good - and $$$ I might add. I decided I could do this myself. Many years ago when my children were young I got into cake decorating and turned out some really cute birthday cakes. I did the doll cakes, the race cars, etc. For many years until this past year I made and decorated award winning gingerbread houses. This provided a really nice Christmas gift fund for our family when the kids were little. We made a couple hundred each year and had them all finished and ready for sale by the first of December. I know that cupcakes are all the rage in different parts of the country and there are volumes on the internet with recipes, decorating styles, etc. The one site that I decided to use is http://52cupcakes.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_archive.html This site seemed to have recipes, ideas, etc. from several different sources including Martha Stewart, Billy Reece of Billy's Bakery plus several comments from users. So I decided to take the plunge and leave Duncan Hines behind in order to try out some of the suggestions. Actually, I didn't take the written word simply as suggestions, but rather as strict instructions. I followed everything to the letter. I did have to purchase a few items in order to get it all right. I had to have a couple of new tips, clear vanilla, cake flour, etc. The following picture shows the items I had to purchase to get this project underway.


Since I had purchased the "filling" tip, I wanted to make filled cupcakes. Below is the lemon filling from the Wilton website. It is really tart and sweet. http://www.wilton.com/cupcakes/ has mounds of filling recipes and decorating ideas. I studied this site a lot.

Here is the batter being prepared exactly as directed.

Hmmmm - what are all those lumps doing there? They are little bits of butter and are supposed to be there I read. When you look at the recipe you will see that the butter is added in a different order than the usual.

P.S. Just got a comment from 52 cupcakes.com that the butter is to be added when it is room temperature and then thoroughly blended in. No lumps allowed! However, I have made 2 batches of these with lumps and they came out good, but will be sure next time the lumps disappear!

All baked and filled! Waiting for them to cool so I can do the decorating with my new large star tip then topped with sprinkles and cake glitter. Not too pretty at this point.


Ta da!! They are beautiful and they taste even better! I guess using the real unsalted butter and whole milk (which I never buy) paid off.
I was asked to provide a table decoration for our church's women group at tonights fancy dinner. I decided to incorporate the cupcakes into the birthday theme and add a few balloons and confetti. Since it was a quasi birthday party, I made a little gift for everyone sitting at my table. Each person received a cute potholder! We were also asked to participate in an activity that resulted in a service of our choice to be auctioned to the highest bidder based on a point system. I was in a quandry as to what I could donate and at the same time be realistic about being able to complete it. I decided on providing a dozen gourmet (ha) cupcakes for the occasion of their choice. The goodies actually received a very high bid. I later found out that the person who did the final bid is a master cake decorator and since becoming confined to a wheelchair hasn't been able to bake and decorate any longer for her children. She thought the cupcakes were really cute and pretty. I'm glad she is getting them and hope she likes them.