I made up this recipe from various things I've wanted to do. I wanted to employ the dipping technique from "Hello Cupcake" (which worked very well, I was surprised!) and a piping pattern called the cornelli, which I'd tried before and done well, however, it didn't work out as well thing time around.
Anyway, the cakes were good, made from a standard vanilla cupcake recipe from "Hello, Cupcake!" Take a look! And also, take a peak at my new logo (yes, still working on it...) by the wonderful Kristin Huyck! The official reveal will be soon!
^The recipe as found in "Hello, Cupcake!" by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson... full of fun ideas!
^All the ingredients lined up and ready. First you mix the dry ones together, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, in a medium bowl. Then mix a few of the wets together, milk, vanilla, and vegetable oil (I had to cut my recipe in half because I didn't realize I was out of oil!) in a separate, small bowl.
^And in a final medium bowl, beat the sugar and butter together. Then beat in each egg separately, finishing by alternately adding the dry and wet mixes, starting and finishing with the dry. Why? Not sure...
^And there you have some batter! I split the recipe, as I mentioned but didn't realize it's hard to split 3 eggs in half... I put two in, it seemed to come out all right.
^A new trick the book suggested was using large zipper bags as batter dispensers. It was easier to get an even cupcake and to drip less. That was until the end... squeezing out that last bit of batter was tricky, so beware!
^The vanilla cupcakes baked about 15 minutes and came out beautifully and perfectly rounded! I don't know why, maybe filling up only 2/3 of the cup is really the perfect amount.
^Now I usually make my own frosting, but for the dipping techinique, the book called for the store bought frosting. I chose cream cheese flavor because vanilla is just too boring!
^Frost the cupcake and make sure to mound the frosting on top. Placing a big glob of frosting in the middle and then smoothing out the edges worked perfectly.
^It probably wasn't necessary for this type of dipping, but I put the cakes in the fridge to cool them down so the frosting already mounded on wouldn't melt with the warmed up frosting.
^The book called for a microwavable measuring cup to use for the dipping frosting, but since I was only doing these small cakes, I chose a much shallower container. Less waste!
^I went with a blue color for the dipping frosting. You can use any. I was going to go for purple but I'm afraid mixing the colors instead of having a purple food coloring might cause some weird brown. Playing it safe this time.
^Put the frosting in the microwave for 5 to 10 seconds. Stir. If it hasn't melted to the right consistency, do another 5 to 10 second increment. The frosting should coat a spoon dipped in it, but hold the shape of a line you draw across the spoon through the frosting with your finger. Took me two increments of 10 seconds to get it right.
^Dip the cake up to the liner in the melted frosting, make sure to get the whole top covered!
^When I pulled mine out, I tried to roll them a bit to the side to catch the excess dripping. You can probably let it drain a little bit longer. Pop any bubbles with a tooth pick.
^I dipped each cake twice, to get a little extra frosting on them. The melted frosting coats pretty nicely and cools down to the perfect consistency, just nice a smooth!
^My warning to you is to HOLD ON TO THE CAKES TIGHTLY! My first one fell out of my hand and into the blue frosting... Oops! I ate the one later ;-)
^Last, tint the frosting you want to use for piping the cornelli pattern. I went with yellow to contrast the darker blue.
^Turn the bag inside out with your hand and scoop the frosting into it. This was a pretty nifty trick!
^Invert the bag back to it's proper orientation and you have a homemade piping bag! Try to squeeze the air to the top so you can hold only the frosting in your hand. Cut just a TINY bit of the tip off. You want a round hole, which I had a bit of trouble with getting. The cornelli pattern doesn't work well when the frosting has a flatter shape as it comes out. Test out your bag a little before you take it to the cakes!
^The pattern consists of twisting and turning lines over the surface of the cupcake. You don't have to do one completely continuous line, althought that's what I did on all but one of them. It's a little tricky, so get some practice (I still need some myself!).
