Last year I posted my recipe for
Classic Vanilla Buttercream. It’s the recipe I use for decorating cupcakes and birthday cakes, especially if I know kids will be the ones eating it. For wedding cakes I like to use a more silkier type frosting that I’ll share with you in the near future. But for everyday cake frosting, the vanilla buttercream is what I use. From that post, I received many comments and emails requesting a chocolate buttercream frosting which could also be used to frost cakes and for piping decorations.
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Fall in Seattle is absolutely stunning right now. You can not drive anywhere without seeing leaves in shades of deep reds, bright oranges, golden yellows, eggplant purples and everything in between.
A few days ago I took this photo while walking with my sister-Janice, and our sons. Even though residential and commercial development has changed the landscape of the city, Greenlake remains the same. I’m so thankful for this and the beauty Fall brings during this time of year.
Last November I posted a detailed, step-by-step cake decorating tutorial on how to make these beautiful Fall gum paste leaves. Inspired by my walk, I thought it was worth re-posting for anyone who wishes to take elevate their decorating skills beyond shell borders.
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What do you do when your little sister calls you up and asks,
“How hard would it be to decorate frosting flowers on cupcakes?”
“How hard for you? Or how hard for me? Are you asking me to help you?”
“Um, yes.”
My sister, Janice, was in charge of bringing cupcakes for a friend’s baby shower who was expecting her first child, a boy. When my sister came over, her top priority was to make them “cute”. Okay, I can do cute. My only requirement would be that she, herself, would have to learn how to decorate them. Not that I was opposed to helping her but I am one of those types of people who believe in the Chinese proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. In this situation it was more like, “Decorate others cupcakes and you’ll be asked to do them all the time. Teach others to decorate their own cupcakes and they have no excuse to ask you ever again”. In all honesty, I believe teaching her some basic cake decorating skills will serve her well in the lives of her children. If she ever needs an assistant I’m just 5 minutes down the road.
What we ended up with were baby blue pansy-like flowers made from buttercream. My focus wasn’t to re-create a particular type of flower, just a nice looking one. We topped each one off with silver sugar sprinkles and the results were great. Beautiful cupcakes always look and taste better, don’t you agree? [click to continue…]
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Isaiah
Here is a fun fact about me you don’t know. I have eighteen nieces and nephews with one more due to arrive in May. Isn’t that crazy? The youngest of them is Isaiah. He is such a great kid and I am so proud to be his Auntie! Yesterday my sister and brother-in-law hosted a fabulous party celebrating his 1 yr Birthday with 150 of their closest friends and family. Part of my birthday gift to my sweet nephew was to make a small birthday cake he could eat all to himself. When trying to come up with ideas on what type of cake to make I had a difficult time trying to “figure it out”. There was no theme for the party other than the colors yellow and grey. I also wanted to come up with a design complimenting the style of Isaiah and his parents. My nephew has the cutest Converse All-Star sneakers and when I saw them last week I instantly knew I had found my inspiration. I asked if I could bring his shoes home with me and from there I started to make mental notes of how I would re-create them. [click to continue…]
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When I used to bake and decorate wedding and birthday cakes, I would use different types of frosting depending on who was eating the cake. Most wedding cakes were frosted in egg based recipes such as Italian or French meringue but for children’s cakes or cupcakes I usually frost cakes in American buttercream frosting. Made with powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, and milk, this is a basic, easy recipe for classic vanilla buttercream frosting. This frosting works great for spreading on cakes, cupcakes, and/or for decorating. Some frosting recipes will call for shortening. Although you could easily substitute some of the butter for shortening, your frosting will taste greasy. But if you must have a true bright white frosting or need to stabilize it, shortening and clear vanilla extract flavoring would work fine. I prefer using all butter and occasionally substituting the vanilla extract for other flavors such as almond, coconut, milk, or lemon. The color of the buttercream is slightly off white but the taste of whipped buttery frosting makes it entirely worth it. Also, the frosting can be easily tinted with food paste gel or food coloring.
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