cupcakes

{Cupcake Decorating} How to pipe buttercream pansy-like flowers

by alice on April 9, 2010 · 70 comments

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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My Best Chocolate Cake Recipe: Chocolate Espresso Cupcakes with Frangelico Ganache

by alice on August 24, 2009 · 13 comments

frangelicocupcakes

Over at  AlDente, the Amazon.com Food Blog you’ll find my guest blog post today for Chocolate Espresso Cupcakes with Frangelico Ganache. These are my favorite cupcakes with a chocolate cake recipe perfect for any occasion. The staff over at Amazon.com loved them too! So go on over to AlDente for the recipe, I promise you won’t regret it!

     
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Simply Glorious: Chocolate Ganache Recipe 3 Ways

by alice on August 18, 2009 · 170 comments

3wayganachecupcakes

As much as I love American fudge frosting, nothing beats the decadent, indulgent taste and texture of chocolate ganache.  Made of pure chocolate and heavy cream, ganache is a chocolate lovers best friend.  Its versatility as a glaze, decorative piping, and whipped cream answers the need for icing, frosting, and filling.

Below I have pictured 3 different ways to adorn cupcakes using the same recipe and batch I made yesterday.  As a glaze, you can easily pour ganache over cakes for a nice smooth finish.  If you are looking for a chocolate whipped filling, look no further.  Just whip the ganache as you would heavy cream, making sure your mixing bowl and beater are nice and cold.  And whatever you do, not put your ganache in the freezer with the hopes of whipping it.  It will not whip and have a curdly like texture.  For a thick frosting or decorative piping, allow the ganache to cool for a truffle like texture.  Anyway you decide to eat it, this ganache will satisfy your sweet tooth and chocolate cravings. Below are step by step photos to guide you. [click to continue…]

     
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