One of my favorite hobbies is baking. I love making beautiful cupcakes! There's just something about a perfect little cupcake that makes me really really happy. To be honest, it has taken me a really long time to figure out how to get my cupcakes the way I want them.. from the domed top to the frosting- it's been a long process of trial and error. Yeeears people.
Today's batch of cupcakes were finally perfect so I'm going to tell you everything I know about making bakery beautiful cupcakes :)
First, we'll start with the recipe.
Let me just say.. this raspberry + lemon combo... PERRRRRFECTION. They're sooooooo stinking good. So so soooo delicious. I can't handle it. Anyway, moving forward.. :)
Let me just say.. this raspberry + lemon combo... PERRRRRFECTION. They're sooooooo stinking good. So so soooo delicious. I can't handle it. Anyway, moving forward.. :)
I don't like overly sweet things. I don't like regular icing because of how sweet it is so at our house we use buttercream frosting. (Jaron actually made this buttercream raspberry frosting.) You can find the recipe he used by clicking here.
We did not use all 4 cups of sugar. We added half and then kept adding a little by little until we got our preferred taste.
I'm not brave enough to make cupcake batter from scratch. The few times that we have tried have ended up failures so #boxcake for the win.
I just got a regular lemon cake mix from the store.
Next, my tips!
The box says preheat the oven to 350°. LIE.
If you want flat cupcakes- go on and do that. But if you want nice domed up tops, preheat your oven to 400° and then just a couple minutes before the cupcakes go in turn it down to 365°.
Doing this makes the outsides of the cupcakes solidify first so that the cake rises up and not out.
Also- fill your cupcakes 3/4ths of the way full. Anything more is overfilling and you will get "muffins tops". Anything less will make your cupcakes flat.
On to my favorite part- DECORATING! :)
To get nice detailed edges in my frosting, I always make sure that my frosting is slightly chilled. (Even if it is store bought frosting I still chill it.) If it is warm, I usually end up by losing detail. Don't let it get too cold though, or it will be hard and stiff making piping pretty impossible.
I don't pipe with a bag. My hands are too warm which causes the frosting to warm too quickly. I am also really messy so piping with a bag just gets disastrous! To keep my frosting the right temperature and my kitchen nice and clean, I love using my Wilton Dessert Decorator Plus.
For these cupcakes I used the large star tip, my personal favorite!
(I'm going to try and explain this the best that I can, if it doesn't make sense or if you have any questions just comment below!)
To frost the cupcakes, I always pipe from the outside going in. Be sure that you start piping right along the edges of the cupcake. (Sometimes Jaron says I skimp on the frosting if I start too close to the middle lol) I like to go counter clock-wise because I am right handed- ensuring I wont smudge the frosting with my hand as I pipe.
With the Dessert Decorator Plus, the most effective way to get the frosting to look this way is to squirt the frosting out kind of fast, but to rotate around the cupcake at a slow pace. Does that make sense? So lots of frosting is coming out, but because you are piping slowly it allows it to look full and tall- I hope that makes sense!
After decorating I usually put the cupcakes back in the fridge for a few minutes to let the frosting chill again, which kind of like seals the deal on the beautiful decorating job you just did. Kind of like how after you make a clay pot you put it in the kiln to set it? Same idea.
aaand Ta-da! (Grant's new favorite saying) you've got beautiful cupcakes ready to go!
Happy baking and decorating!
-C