So this cake ... read on, Fisherboy »]]> So I actually meant to post this last year, because I made it for my daughter’s 4th birthday party (that photo is last year’s version – she really wanted sprinkles!). You see how awesome I am at getting around to things. In all actuality, though, I’m glad I didn’t – because the recipe I would have posted last year is very time-intensive. Worth it – but a lot of labor. You actually have to start prepping for it about 3-4 days in advance.

So this cake is my daughter’s favorite. She loves it. She loves everything “pink” and “princessy” (which I think I’ve mentioned before – HOW in the world I ended up with a “girly” daughter is beyond me) and when she saw this cake last year, she went nuts for it. She asks me for it all the time. I haven’t made it since her last birthday, so I decided to do it again this year.

So here’s the deal: it’s a deep chocolate cake with strawberry white chocolate mousse filling. Now, Im not a fan of white chocolate anything,but when I was in culinary school, my pastry arts instructor gave us a recipe for white chocolate mousse that is to die for. It’s a killer recipe that can be messed with in so many ways. However – it’s time intensive and there’s a lot of steps to making it.

The reason this cake is so hard to make is because you have to make the mousse (in and of itself uses a lot of pans, and requires a lot of attention) and wait for it to set before you can even fill the cakes with it. And if you want to flavor the white chocolate mousse (say, with strawberries) then you have to make, strain and cool the strawberry pureé before you even start making the mousse. Once you fill the cakes, you have to let them freeze in molds (so the mousse won’t squish out while you’re decorating it). Then the cover – I detest fondant. It’s too sweet. And there’s a lot of people who use fondant and don’t roll it out thin enough – so it’s this thick layer of chewy overly sweet candy on a cake. Ugh. So I usually use my recipe for plastic chocolate instead – and it take a minimum of 48 hours to make. So it’s a lot of “lots of work” mixed with “lots of waiting.”

Well I ran out of time this year to make my daughter’s birthday cake. I just got started on it last night – I made the strawberry puree, and I got the cakes baked, but I didn’t have the ingredients to start the mousse (and by the time I was able to get them it was way too late to actually make the mousse), and I should have started the plastic chocolate last Thursday.

God love Google.

This year, I’m making the cake, but I’m trying some different methods. I have a new strawberry white chocolate mousse recipe (that is actually just as delicious as the one I have) that takes half the time to make. And I’m going to use fondant. But not just any regular fondant – marshmallow fondant.

I will provide the recipe here, but I won’t have pictures until later. As of this writing, the cakes are in the freezer (filled with mousse and getting set for decoration), and the fondant is on the table, ready to be rolled, colored and molded. I really wanted to make a topsy-turvy cake (like this one from the Little Cake Parlour) but turns out the pans I have are not sized correctly to pull it off. So she’s just getting a stacked cake. I’m using this cake as my inspiration for decorating it.

So here is my new (and only-takes-a-day-to-make-instead-of-three) cake recipe.

Double Chocolate Strawberry Cake

makes 2-tiered cake (8″ and 6″ layers)

Ingredients

• For Fondant
• 1 package mini marshmallows
• 1# (4c) powdered sugar (plus extra for dusting)
• 2 Tbsp water
• For Pureé
• 1 pint strawberries, hulled, cleaned and chopped
• 1 1/4 tsp lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• For Mousse
• 1 c heavy whipping cream
• 1 Tbsp powdered sugar
• 6oz white chocolate (GOOD white chocolate, like Ghirardelli)
• 1/2 package Knox gelatin
• 2 Tbsp cold water
• For Cake
• see my tips on cake making – go ahead and bake your cakes following those directions. You’ll also want about 1 1/2 cups of buttercream frosting – from a can or homemade, it doesn’t matter. But you’ll want it to be white.

Preparation

You’re better off doing these items the day before, and save the decorating for the day of the event. But as long as you start early the morning of (and the event is that evening), you should still be good to go.

For Marshmallow Fondant – courtesy about.com

1. Dump the bag of mini marshmallows into a microwave-safe bowl. A BIG one. Add the 2 Tbsp water. Nuke it. You’ll want to start at 1 minute, but for mine, it took almost 3. (I started with 2 minutes, stirred, then 40 seconds, stirred, and then another 40 seconds.) You want the marshmallows to be really melted, and after stirring, you want no lumps whatsoever.
2. Now dump the pound of powdered sugar into the melted marshmallows. Yep. The whole thing. Stir. The longer you stir, the harder you’ll have to work. At some point, it’ll be impossible to stir anymore (and the sugar will not all be incorporated into the marshmallow – there’ll still be a lot hanging out all over). At this point, you want to sprinkle some powdered sugar on the table, rub some on your hands, and dump the stuff on the table. Start kneading it like bread dough. Yes, it’ll be sticky. Work it until it’s pretty much like bread dough, and set aside.

For Strawberry Pureé

1. Put strawberries in a small pot, and add just a little bit of water and the tablespoon of sugar. Stir. Cook until strawberries are quite mushy, sert aside to cool. Once cooled off, pop the whole batch in a blender and pureé. Strain into a bowl, discard the seeds and junk left in the strainer. You want to end up with around 1 cup of pureé (give or take about 1/4 c).

For Mousse

1. Place your mixer beaters in a large bowl and pop in the freezer to get good and cold.
2. Place white chocolate in a metal bowl, and put bowl on top of small pot with a little water in it (or just use a double-boiler). Heat the water and gently melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally until smooth.
3. While chocolate is melting, place the 2 Tbsp water in a small bowl and mix in the gelatin, allow to sit for at least 5 minutes to bloom.
4. While all that is going on, put 1/4 c of the heavy cream into a small saucepan and add the 2 Tbsp of sugar. Mix and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and stir in gelatin. Add this mixture to the melted chocolate. S-L-O-W-L-Y – the liquid will make the chocolate sieze up and make it difficult to stir, and possibly break it. So add a little and incorporate, then add a little more…on like that until it’s all in there and the chocolate/gelatin mixture is nice and smooth.
5. Add a little bit of strawberry pureé to the chocolate and blend until smooth – and keep adding it until it’s all mixed together.
6. Pull your cold bowl and beaters from the freezer, pop the beaters into your hand mixer. Add the remaining heavy cream to the bowl and whip until medium-to-stiff peaks form. Dollop a few spoonfuls of whipped cream into the strawberry-chocolate mixture and blend well. Pour this mixture back into the remaining whipped cream and gently fold it through until all white streaks are gone. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Now all you have to do is assembly. If you have cake rings, they’ll be a huge help, but if not, just take some aluminum foil, fold lengthwise into thirds, and wrap around your bottom cake layer. (You’ll want to put your bottom cake layer onto a cookie sheet.) Plop a few heaping spoonfuls of mousse onto the cake layer and spread around a bit, stopping about 1/2″ from the edge. Place your next layer on top of this and press – this will flatten and spread the mousse into a nice layer. If you have more layers, keep on doing this, ending with a cake layer. Pop into the freezer for a few hours (4, at least.)

If you like, halfway through the freezing process, you can pull the cakes out and take off the “rings”. You may find that the mousse didn’t spread to the edges. What I like to do is “frost” the cake with the remaining mousse (you’ll have a lot left, actually) to get the sides all evened up. Not necessary, but it makes for easier decorating later on.

Later (or the next day, if you were good and did all of this the day before), you’ll want to sprinkle your table with powdered sugar and roll out your fondant (like a pie crust). Pull your cake out of the freezer and place on a cake stand. Frost the cake (a light/thin layer – this is acting more like glue than anything) all over, and then cover with the fondant. Smooth down and cut off excess around edges.

At this point, you can do whatever you like. You’ll probably have quite a bit of fondant left, so what I do is separate them into sections and add food coloring, then make little colored shapes to decorate with. You can cut them out (like cookies) or just mold with your fingers and attach to the cake with any buttercream frosting you might have left over.

You can put the cake in the fridge at this point, just to keep the mousse filling from melting and bulging out, but if you froze it overnight, it should hold steady for quite a few hours. Enjoy!

NOTE: It was declicious. If you tried out this recipe when I first put it up a couple of days ago, you’ll probably have a TON of fondant and mousse left over. I’ve adjusted the amounts to make it more in line with how much you need – you shouldn’t have as much left over as I did. however, the leftover strawberry mousse was superb, and we’ve been snacking on it (it’s really filling!). And as I was putting the fondant aside and trying to figure out what to do with it, and idea for a S’mores Cake popped into my head. I swear, if you made a chocolate cake with chocolate chips in it, frosted it, sprinkled crushed graham crackers all over it and enrobed it in this Marshmallow Fondant, I bet it would be to die for. OO…oo! Or how about…how about… a version of baked alaskas….bake chocolate cupcakes, take off the tops and put in a scoop of chocolate ice cream and enrobe it in the marshmallow stuff and burn it with a torch (or maybe pour a tiny bit o’ rum over it and light it on fire just before serving?) oh yummy.

I need to shut up now.

Well as I was looking for some inspiration for a client’s website design (the main reason I’d bookmarked ... read on, Fisherboy »]]> I first saw these cupcakes here, at the Little Cake Parlour (the “Popcorn Cup Mini Cakes”). My son’s birthday was coming up, and every kid that had a birthday in his class had been brining in cupcakes for the class to share. So we were brainstorming ideas for what sort of cupcakes to take in. (If you recall, for his kindergarten class, I’d made Brain Cupcakes for Halloween.)

Well as I was looking for some inspiration for a client’s website design (the main reason I’d bookmarked that Cake Parlour site), Evan walked in and saw the popcorn cupcakes, and declared THAT was what he wanted to give his class for his birthday.

I tell ya, this had to be one of the easiest projects evah.

I would give you an actual recipe, but I used a “dirty trick” that a former boss of mine had shared with me. His name was Fritz, and he came from Switzerland. He opened a chocolate chop in my hometown, and I worked there for a while, making all kinds of chocolate goodies. (It was really fun making chocolate sculptures!) Anyway, before he retired and gave the shop to his son, he used to make cakes as well as chocolates. To this day, a few people recall Fritz’s cakes and shake their heads in sadness, because he made the best cakes around, and the shop no longer does that.

Anyway.

One day, he came into the shop to make a cake – specifically for an old friend. We were chatting it up, and I watched him gather his ingredients, and I was very much surprised to see him using Duncan Hines cake mix. I figured he had some super-awesome mysterious recipe that I could somehow scrounge out of him. But when I declared my surprise, he said “The biggest thing for a baker is to measure out his ingredients in perfect ratios. If you mess up your ratio, your cake will turn out too heavy, or not moist enough, or it will fall – all kinds of things go wrong.” He shook the box. “These are perfectly pre-measured dry ingredients. It’s the same stuff I’d use if I did it by hand, so why shouldn’t I use this? Makes my life so much easier, and no one knows the difference!”

Talk about making sense.

He told me what his secret was though, and I shall share it with you.

His number one recommendation was to always use Duncan Hines Super Moist cake mix. if you ever make chocolate anything, you want to use the Swiss Chocolate mix. He said it was the best base – not too rich, and not too light.

His next suggestions were to read the back of the box. Where it says to use 2 eggs (or 3, whatever. They all have different measurements) you simply add one extra egg. However much oil it calls for, double it, and replace “oil” with “melted unsalted butter”. And where it calls for “water”, make it whole milk.

As for me, I later added another “secret ingredient” – Jell-O instant pudding mix. Drop in an entire dry packet into the dry mix and blend before adding the wet ingredients.

Bam. Perfect cake every time. Moist, delicious, and pretty dang easy.

So that’s the cake recipe. (Not as bad as the Brain Cupcakes, since I had to make those eggless. I had no restrictions of that sort this year, since no kids on his class had food allergies.) I also used Vanilla Fristing – ye, Duncan Hines. I could have made buttercream frosting but… you know. They’re in first grade. They won’t care.

So I popped cups in the tins, and filled them 3/4 full (I don’t do that “half full” crap. I like BIG cupcakes.) and baked per instructions.

Now the fun part.

I used 6 sheets of card stock and printed out A quickie Popcorn Box Template I created in Photoshop. (Go ahead, grab it. Enjoy!) While the cupcakes were baking (and later cooling) I cut out the templates and set them aside. Then the kids and I took an entire bag of mini-marshmallows and started twisting. Really, that’s all you had to to – give each marshmallow a half-turn. I found I got better results if I twisted them from top to bottom (the flat sides) instead of through the middle – but that’s all you had to do. Twist and drop in a bowl.

Then I used a cupcake to determine the side of the popcorn box. I took one of the cut templates and wrapped it so it was snug (not tight, but snug) around the base of the cupcake, and taped it shut with regular gift-wrapping tape. I sed the location (visually marked) so I could just roll and wrap all the rest to basically the same size, then I proceeded to drop all the cupcakes in the “boxes” (which were actually cylinders, but whatever).

Then I used the white frosting to frost them – thin layer is all you need – and proceeded to drop the marshmallows on top of the cupcakes until they looked like little mounds of popcorn.

A final touch is to mix a drop or two of yellow food coloring in a bowl of water. (You don’t need a lot of water – maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons) and with your finger, just dip and lightly smear over the “popcorn” to give it that “fresh butter” look. You’re not looking for total coverage here – just brush your finger over and wherever it touches, there it is.

They were a hit. The kids devoured them all. Such a simple little thing to do,and he return on investment was way more than I expected! (However, I don’t know if they were as big a hit as his actual birthday cake…)

Now, before I get started on the recipe, I want to ‘splain why it’s not working for me. Basically, it’s too wet. The ... read on, Fisherboy »]]> Okay, so I’m posting this recipe, even though it’s not working correctly (for me, anyway…) Perhaps it’ll work better for you. Anyway, this pie is a family favorite. I jut started making it 2 years ago, but it’s been so popular that my husband – who has no sweet tooth at all – salivates when he sees me buying the berries for it.

Now, before I get started on the recipe, I want to ‘splain why it’s not working for me. Basically, it’s too wet. The bottom crust does not get cooked, and frankly, it’s pissing me off.

I’ve learned a few “tricks of the trade” when it comes to cooking berry pies, but so far, this recipe is failing at every attempt. I have one last-ditch effort I’m going to try before giving up on this pie. One thread of hope. Basically, I plan to cook the filling before I put it in the shell – something I don’t normally do (unless I’m making some form of tart) – but I’m hoping that pre-cooking the filling will fix the issue I’m having with this pie.

Because really, it truly is too damn good to give up on – wet-bottom crust and all.

Now, I’m going to explain part of this recipe as well – which is the preparation of the pan and oven. This is (usually) the single best trick I know for baking a perfect double-crust pie. (Again, usually) this results in a perfect pie shell. So, this recipe aside, I highly recommend using these methods any time you want to do a double-crust filled pie. It’s no fail. (for a third time – usually.)

Tip #1: You want to preheat the oven to 450°F. I don’t care what any other recipe tells you – you want it at this nice, high temperature.

Tip #2: Put a rack in the very bottom of the oven, as low as it’ll go. Most recipes tell you to use the center position for your rack. Bull, I say! Lowest position. Every time.

Tip #3: You want a cookie sheet (if you have a large pizza pan, that’ll work great) covered with aluminum foil. If the sides are shallow (as in less than 1/2″) thenfold up the edges of the foil to create a “lip”. Put this pan in the oven while the oven is preheating.

Tip #4: Butter your pie pan. Seems crazy, right? but no – butter it. And use Butter if at all possible – because butter will cause a nice crispness. You want to grease the sides and bottom completely. Then sprinkle a fine layer of granulated sugar all over the pan – make sure it’s got a nice, even coating. Then roll out your bottom crust into the pan.

These steps will pretty much guarantee you have a nice, crisp, fully-cooked bottom crust as your pie bakes. You know, as long as your filling isn’t too wet. (Gah!) but like I said, next time I make this, I’m going to fully thaw the berry mixture, toss in the thickening agents and cook it over the stovetop to be sure it sets up. That should take care of the “wet bottom” issue, and give me a nice crust.

So without further ado:

Jumbleberry Pie

Serves 12

Ingredients

• 7 cups mixed berries: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries. (You can buy frozen mixed in a 4-pound bag at your local grocery store – it’s perfect for this)
• 4 Tbsp cornstarch
• 4 Tbsp tapioca
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 c granulated sugar
• 1 egg, broken and mixed with about 1 Tbsp water
• granulated sugar for dusting
• Your favorite pie crust (I use Pillsbury – why mess with a good thing?)
• 1 pint heavy whipping cream (optional)
• 1 tsp vanilla (optional)
• 3 Tbsp granulated sugar (optional)

Preparation

1. Place bottom crust in shell, preheat oven (according to notes above) to 450°F.
2. In a small bowl, blend 1c sugar, cornstarch, salt and tapioca; mix well.
3. In a large bowl, turn out your berries. Add in the sugar mixture, and toss to coat well.
4. Place all ingredients into pie crust. Using a pastry brush, swipe a little egg over the overhang. Roll out the second crust over the berries, press edges together and flute.
5. Brush all over the top of the shell with the egg. Dust lightly with sugar. Using a small, sharp knife, cut 6 large vent openings in the top crust.
6. pop into the oven and back for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F, and continue baking until the crust is golden brown, another 40-50 minutes.
7. Cool to room temperature. Serve with vanilla ice cream, or chantilly cream (recipe follows).

Optional Chantilly Cream addition

1. Place heavy cream into a cold bowl. Place cold beaters into your mixer.
2. Add in vanilla and sugar.
3. Whip on high speed until cream achieves stiff peaks.

1 serving (without chantilly cream):
279 cal, 9.3g fat, 46.6g carbs, 2.3g fiber, 1.9g protein

Now, if anyone actually does try this recipe with the modifications I mentioned above (i.e. pre-cooking the filling before adding it to the shell) please let me know how it turned out. I highly suspect an additional tablespoon or two of tapioca will be necessary as well, but again, this is something I want to experiment with before committing to it. but even if you don’t, trust me – this is freaking delicious and you won’t be sorry about the mess you made. (It all tastes the same!)

The answer? Popcorn Balls.

Now, I know when I was a kid, I loved them. I remember trick-or-treating and some of my friends were upset because one of the neighbors was handing out homemade popcorn balls instead of “real” candy. I, however, was happy to take them off their hands – ... read on, Fisherboy »]]> So, my son is supposed to bring a handmade gift as a “Secret Santa” for a classmate. The thing is, the silly bot told the recipient that he was his “Santa,” and specifically asked him what he wanted.

The answer? Popcorn Balls.

Now, I know when I was a kid, I loved them. I remember trick-or-treating and some of my friends were upset because one of the neighbors was handing out homemade popcorn balls instead of “real” candy. I, however, was happy to take them off their hands – I loved them. My mother never made them, and any time I got a chance to have one, I took it.

I, myself, have never made them either – until last night, when my son helped me make the balls. I’m going to share the recipe with you, because they really did turn out delicious – and they were so easy to make.

Popcorn Balls

adapted from AllRecipes.com
makes about 5-10 balls, depending on size

Ingredients

• Just under 1/2c light corn syrup
• 2 Tbsp margarine or butter
• 1 tsp cold water
• 1 1/3c powdered sugar
• 4 large marshmallows (about 1/2 cup)
• 1 large bag (about 3.5-4 cups popped) microwave popcorn, plain

Preparation

1. Pop the popcorn as instructed, place in a large bowl. Pull out a cookie sheet and line with wax paper or Saran Wrap.
2. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine everything but the popcorn. Bring to boil and mix well.
3. Pour the syrup over the popcorn and mix well, coating the popcorn evenly.
4. Spray your hands with PAM® and rub together to coat them well; or use some other kind of flavorless shortening or oil to get nice and greased up. Start forming balls of popcorn and dropping them on the cookie sheet.

That’s pretty much it. A side note, though: my son helped a lot with this. We measured and stirred (of course, i was right there supervising him) and he was all excited to make the balls – BUT I wouldn’t let him because it was really hot. I used to do pulled sugar work in school, and although it wasn’t that hot, it was still pretty dang hot. So a tip would be to wait a couple of minutes to let it cool off slightly, and then sort of scrape the popcorn off the top and around the edges. The popcorn seems to hold the heat in, so if you just grab a handful down the middle, it’s gonna hurt.

Also, a lot of people wonder how you get that sticky stuff cleaned off. I’m going to provide you with a useful tip: when you’re finished with everything, run very hot water in your sink, and rinse out the bow and spoon with the hot water. (This trick works well when you’ve over-caramelized sugar or just let it get hardened so it doesn’t come off without chipping, too – add boiling water and it softens and comes right off.)

We wrapped these balls in a square of saran wrap and tied them off with some pretty silver ribbon. He made a card for his classmate, and soon, they’ll be off!

]]> http://candybill.com/bites/desserts/best-popcorn-balls-evah/feed 0 http://candybill.com/bites/desserts/eggless-brain-cupcakes http://candybill.com/bites/desserts/eggless-brain-cupcakes#comments Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:32:36 +0000 Shelly http://candybill.com/?p=368 My son is in kindergarten, and his class recently had a Halloween party to which I volunteered to bring snacks for. Since I have a culinary degree, signing up to bring food is always my number one choice, and when I can be creative and fun, I’m all over it.

I was informed that one of the children has a nut allergy, and another has an egg allergy. So usually, baked goods are out of the question. When I told the organizing mom that I would bring cupcakes, ... read on, Fisherboy »]]>



Eggless Brain Cupcake

My son is in kindergarten, and his class recently had a Halloween party to which I volunteered to bring snacks for. Since I have a culinary degree, signing up to bring food is always my number one choice, and when I can be creative and fun, I’m all over it.

I was informed that one of the children has a nut allergy, and another has an egg allergy. So usually, baked goods are out of the question. When I told the organizing mom that I would bring cupcakes, I could tell that she didn’t believe I could pull it off without excluding some children.

My original idea was to use bananas or applesauce in place of the eggs, and I was also told that using flax seed was an excellent egg substitute – but unfortunately I couldn’t find any in my area, and it was too late for me to order any online. But when I came across the recipe, i was surprised, and my 8th Grade Science Project (the ever-standard fallback of a volcano) came flooding to mind when I saw this. (See, Mr. DeLong? The volcano does come in handy in real life. I still haven’t needed the “two trains coming at each other at X MPH…” question though.)

The cupcakes were actually terrific. I was surprised at how good they were. they were moist enough to chow down on without any frosting at all. but my son is a 5-year-old boy, who loves bolidy functions and being as gross as possible. When we were moving through the grocery store, he saw Martha Stewart’s magazine (Halloween issue – and trust me when I say I am typically not a MS fan at all.) and loved the “brain cupcakes”, and begged me to make them. So I found an eggless frosting recipe and went to it.

Cupcakes

(adapted from Gourmeted.com)
Makes about 30-36 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup cold water
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp vinegar

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray cupcake pans with vegetable oil spray.
2. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix all the wet ingredients (except for the vinegar) in a separate bowl.
3. Stir in the wet ingredient mixture with the dry ingredients until well combined.
4. Mix in the vinegar rapidly and immediately fill the cupcake pans 1/2 to 2/3 full.
   Bake for 15 minutes, or until set.
5. Allow to completely cool in the pan.
6. Enjoy on their on or frost with your favorite frosting.

Buttercream Frosting

makes enough to generously frost the above recipe with some left over

Ingredients

• 2 sticks butter, soft
• 1# confectioner’s (powdered) sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2oz – 1/2 c lukewarm water
• red food coloring (I used gel, but drops would work too)

Preparation

1. Whip butter and vanilla until fluffy.
2. Add in sugar slowly, whipping until light and fluffy.
3. Use water to loosen up the frosting if it gets too thick.
4. Add in red food coloring until desired color is achieved.

Now, a word. One thing I absolutely detest is what is called “American Buttercream.” Most people know it as the stuff that’s in the middle of an Oreo cookie, or what Wal-Mart puts on the birthday cakes. I find that stuff absolutely revolting. I hate it with every fiber of my being. It basically has two ingredients: Powdered Sugar and Crisco. (God, even typing that made me want to puke.) My favorite type of butter cream (and meringue, actually) is the Italian – where you cook the sugar into a syrup and add it in while whipping. American Buttercream is sickly sweet, and always leaves an icky coating on your tongue. Gah. But people like it because there is no color in Crisco: your frosting will be pure white. And it’s cheap. (as a defense to these arguments: 1) when you whip butter it gets lighter in color, and if you want pure white, then make your own. It’s dead easy- just whip heavy cream until it turns into butter; and 2) you get what you pay for.)

The above frosting recipe was pretty good. Better than Wal-Mart, that’s for sure. But it did still remind me of it. The frosting was certainly too sweet for my palate, and if I ever make this again, I’m definitely cutting a lot of it out, and possibly replacing it with something that provides some flavor. If it weren’t for the child that had a nut allergy, I probably would add a bit of almond extract or something to give it a little more kick. But if you like really sweet stuff (and you’re a fan of Wal-Mart frosting) then you’ll probably like it just how it is.

Now, that aside, the assembly it really easy. All you need is a pastry bag with a fairly wide round tip. I used to have one, but at some point, my sin must have thought it was a toy, because I couldn’t find it. So I did the trick of using a Ziploc bag and cutting off one of the bottom corners. Worked just fine. Load it up with frosting (not too much, though – it warms in your hands really quickly, and it’ll lose its shape – so load in enough to do maybe 4 or 5 cupcakes before needing to get more) and really all you have to do is squirt it out in squiggly form on one side, and then the other (the brain has a division/seam down the center, so all you have to do is try and keep that in mind).

The kids ate these up. (Literally.) Enjoy!

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