Yummy Treats Decorating Camp: Cupcakes

The kids are on "Winter Break" until Wednesday, and my genius child had a great idea: host a Yummy Treats Decorating mini-camp for him and his friends. One day for cupcakes, one day for cake pops, and another day for cookies. We're having to skip a day for other obligations, but today was the day for cupcakes.

I baked 2 dozen red velvet cupcakes and 2 dozen yellow cupcakes, thanks to Kroger having Duncan Hines cake mixon sale for $1 per box not too long ago. We used chocolate pudding and raspberry jam for fillings and CK Buttercream icing. I had some Roundabouts Cupcake Sleeves left over from the Art Sparks event, which just happened to be Valentine's Day themed, so we used up the rest of those. They'll get distributed to various friends and acquaintances over the next few days. The kids got very creative with the other cupcakes, and it was a lot of fun.

These were super easy to make. They were iced using a piping bag and tip 1M, then sprinkled with either red sanding sugar, nonpareils, or Nerds candy.

  

I then topped each one with either a red M&M's candy, a SweeTarts heart, little blossoms cut from red modeling chocolate, or a red rosebud rolled out of modeling chocolate.

 

Then I just wrapped a sleeve around the outside, and viola: they're cupcake Valentines!

  

Should've Done Sunday

Today I saw an old friend for the first time in over a year. By old friend, I'm not referring to her age; I mean that I've known her a long time. I decorated her wedding cake, and at the time it was the biggest project I had ever undertaken. Not because it was that complicated or difficult, but because I was still pretty much a beginner decorator. I was so proud of that cake, and it was pretty, but I look at pictures of it now and I can't help but see flaws and where I went wrong. I guess that's the eye of experience or something, but there's a long list of "Should've Dones" for that one.

I have quite a few pictures of cakes I've decorated over the past 14 years, and while I must have thought they looked good enough on the day to take their picture, some make me cringe when I look at them now. So I thought I'd share some of them here on my blog. The nice thing about past mistakes is that you can learn from them and do better the next time.

Starting next Sunday, because it's way too late for me to go digging up an old picture and hook up the scanner and all that now, I'll post a photo of a randomly selected cake from my past and tell you what I don't like about it now and what I think I should've done instead. I'm not promising a Should've Done Sunday post every week, but I'd like to make it a regular theme.

Ribbon Cutter Tool Fun

My son likes to decorate his own birthday cake. This is a tradition he started on his 4th birthday. I bake and ice a sheet cake, then he designs the top using food coloring markers and edible Rice Paper. This year, when we went to Sweet Wise to purchase the necessary supplies, the rice wafer paper was out of stock. Instead, we opted to cover the cake in FondX rolled fondant (don't worry, this brand actually tastes good!), and he then used the food coloring pens to draw directly on the top of his cake. He loves to play video games. Past birthday cakes have featured Guitar Hero and Rock Band instruments and Sackboy from Little Big Planet. This year, it's all about Crash Bandicoot. Here is the finished cake:

Originally he didn't want any kind of bottom border, but I suggested we have something to make the cake look finished, attention to detail and all that. He wasn't fussy about what went on the bottom, as long as it was red. Well, I'll take any excuse to play with my ribbon cutter tool!

First I tried using the striped embosser, but that made too wide of a ribbon.

You can see how short the cake is, and I didn't want to completely cover up the sides.

So, I tried using the zig-zag cutter with the 1/2" spacers.

But the zig-zag on the bottom didn't look right, and it was tricky positioning the ribbon around the cake evenly. Plus, the white bottom edge showed through.

So, I reloaded my ribbon cutter to make one edge straight and the other zig-zag.

This worked the best, and so that's what I ended up using.

It's a very versatile tool and a lot of fun to use. It's all about creative freedom, you know!

Bake-Even Cake Strips

These top my list of "must have" baking tools. All you have to do is soak them in cold water, squeeze out the excess, and then pin them around the outside of the pans before baking your cake layers. They cool the sides of the pan, so the edges cook more slowly and the entire cake bakes evenly, producing lovely level cake layers.

Pictured below are two 8" round white cake layers, both made from the same box of cake mix and baked in Wilton aluminum cake pans. One pan had a Bake-Even Cake Strip on it, the other did not. It's pretty obvious which is which, isn't it?

Layer baked in pan without a Bake-Even Cake Strip: notice the over-browning of the cake sides, crispy edges, and cracked mound on top.

The layer baked with a Bake-Even Cake Strip on the pan has level top and evenly baked sides.