at any rate, i invited cool-cat chloe over to bake before the summer started, and we finally did that on tuesday. we made lemon cupcakes with my favorite recipe (so far) and frosted them with vanilla buttercream. remember that post that had no pictures? yea. that one.
the only things that really need attention is how much air you beat in. pay attention to how pale/fluffy your butter is when you cream it, and don't forget to beat your eggs to a pale lemon yellow before adding in parts to the butter. also, sift your flour. yes, i know it can be a pain. but it's worth it. also, always fold your flour in, and don't you DARE to use a stirring motion as it stirs all the air out.
anyway, the main fun in making these cupcakes was frosting them. i'd just gotten a set of 12 gel food colorings by wilton, and with my newly certified piping skills, i taught chloe some simple frosting techniques for cupcakes. we separated the frosting into three parts, and dyed one in teal, which turned out a minty green, and one with a mixture of royal blue and violet, which turned into a nice, dusty purple shade with some blue undertones. the small part that we had left, we dyed with kelly green and a spot of (no taste) red and used it for leaves. we piped rosettes with wilton tips 1M and 2D, and drop flowers with wilton tip 1M. the leaves were done with wilton tip 352. pretty simple stuff, nothing too complicated. of course, chloe learned and piped like a superstar, and she ended up doing most of the cupcakes. (chloe, could you please stop being so talented?)
i took some of these cupcakes to work with me on wednesday and they disappeared in 3 minutes after work, tops. and their aesthetics got quite a few complements, including a loud, shocked, exclamation of "ARE THOSE REAL?!?"
yes, christy, yes, they are.
recipe after the jump :)
Ingredients225g unsalted butter, room temp. 225g sugar 225g self-raising flour 1 tsp baking powder 4 eggs zest of two small lemons | Ready to bake?
|