Cupcake madness

Fun with frosting!

 Today I bring you some inspiration to play with your food. Some times it turns out for the best and other times not so much, but no matter what you end up having a lot of fun. My eldest sister came for a visit from Texas to celebrate the 4th of July as well as my parents birthday. We thought it would be a fun idea to make some cupcakes for my parents birthdays, so we took 2 dozen cupcakes and made 8 different frostings.

 For starters we had a bit of a time crunch so we pulled a few cheat moves out of our sleeves.
I bought the un-frosted cupcakes from my work and 3 cans of pre-made cream cheese frosting.
 I will do the best job I can to give you the amounts I used for each frosting but like I mentioned before this is more for inspiration.  Each set of cupcake frosting we did was tailored to the type flavors my parents like. My mom loves lighter more delicate flavors and my dad likes richer more decedent flavors.

The first four:

The first frosting we made for my dad's cupcakes was a red wine frosting. I took a mini bottle of red wine and poured about half of it into a sauce pan to start warming it up. I then took about a tablespoon of warm wine and mixed it with about 2 teaspoons of flour in a separate cup to make a roux. I then poured my roux in with the rest of the wine in the sauce pan. Cook the wine string frequently until it has a thicker consistency. Take the wine off the heat and set it aside to let it cool.
Once it has cooled mix it with about 3/4 cup of cream cheese frosting. Let the frosting rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes until it has set. Add more or less wine to fit your personal taste.
This frosting was on a vanilla cupcake.

Next up is a peanut-butter frosting with an everything pretzel as a garnish.
 This frosting was as easy a combining the cream cheese frosting and some peanut-butter until it tasted just right. We then piped it on a chocolate cupcake.

This next one is a my take on dirt and worms. I took about 4 oreos and crushed them up cream and all. I mixed the crushed cookies in with the frosting and spooned it on top of a red velvet cupcake. then took more cookies and crushed them to create the "dirt" for the top. I also added mini chocolate chips and a gummy worm.

This next one was probably my favorite of the cupcakes we made for my dad. This is a salted caramel frosting with a caramel drizzle and brown sugar candied bacon. For the frosting base I used canned pre-made caramel, You can normally find this near the condensed milk. I used almost equal parts caramel and frosting for a rich flavor, but add as much or as little caramel to suit your taste. I then mixed in a few pinches of french sea salt to my frosting. for the drizzle of caramel I put some of my remaining canned caramel into a small sauce pan and heated it up until it was slightly more liquified.
Now for that candied bacon! Grab a few pieces of platter bacon or regular what ever you have on hand. crust it with brown sugar on both sides and shake off the loose sugar. place on a baking sheet lined with foil and place a small wire rack on the baking sheet. bake at 375* until the sugar starts to caramelize and the bacon starts to crisp. let cool and break into small pieces.  

 

Round two:

The lovely cupcake with the Butterfly in it is a Butter rum and honey frosted cupcake on red velvet garnished with honey comb candy. This frosting is as simple as a drop or two of butter rum flavoring and a tablespoon or two of honey mixed into you base frosting.

This is my seashore cupcake, a vanilla cupcake with a spice frosting topped with crushed cinnamon graham crackers, edible pearls and a chocolate seashell. This frosting has dark brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Spice the frosting up as much or as little as you'd like.

This was my favorite from the second set of cupcake we made. This is a vanilla cupcake with lemon frosting topped with edible pearls and mini sugar roses. To make the frosting I took the cream cheese frosting and mixed it with fresh squeezed lemon juice to taste. then I added an edible yellow shimmer powder until I had the lovely light golden yellow color I wanted. The edible shimmer colors are easy to find at your local craft store in the cake decorating section.

This last one is a Blackberry jam frosting on a chocolate cupcake. I combine blackberry jam with my cream cheese frosting base until I had a flavor I wanted. Let this sit in the fridge until it sets. This one is garnished with edible sugar flowers.

I hope you found some inspiration from my cupcakes and I encourage everyone to experiment and play around with new ideas. You don't always have to make everything from scratch to have it look and taste impressive. Even if your frosting doesn't turn out I can say that it is always fun to play with your food.



   Until next time,
Angel.