Monday, February 1, 2010

Cupcakes and me.

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Me: [wistfully] "I wish I could make good cupcakes."
Hubby: [looking shocked] "You make great cupcakes!"
Me: "No...I mean pretty cupcakes."
Hubby: "oh."
♦ ♦ ♦


I'll just admit it: I have never made a cupcake that I thought looked pretty. Never a time that I could stand back, take a look and think, "Now that's a good looking cupcake."
.
To begin with, I can never seem to get the correct amount of cake batter into each cup. Never. There's either not enough or too much - oozing up and over the sides or ending up completely lop-sided once it's baked.

Then there's the frosting that I struggle with. I'm sure a big part of it is the fact that I buy frosting in a can. Maybe if I had a great frosting recipe my cupcakes would look amazing? I'd probably also need to have a pastry bag and fancy tips for decorating with the amazing frosting...

♦ ♦ ♦
If anyone has any tips for making pretty cupcakes I'd love to hear them.

Oh - and a frosting recipe would be great too! :o}
.
xo

12 comments:

Michellefinaz said...

Just look for a basic buttercream recipe. Powdered sugar, butter, vanilla and milk. You can control the thickness and that will help with frosting the cupcakes.

Ruth said...

You should ask Shimelle for advice ~ her cupcakes are both pretty and tasty!

traci said...

nope, no pretty cupcakes here. wish i could help you. they look good though.

Dave said...

I think disguising them with decorations always works. ;) Like with those heart candies. I made these cupcakes last Valentine's Day and neither the cupcake or the decoration look nice by themselves...but I loved how they came together.

Or sometimes I stick things in the top...and that works okay too.

But a real live pretty cupcake with no disguise? I'm not there yet. ;)

Sian said...

Well, those look like pretty cute cupcakes to me. Over here we say "icing" and I think "frosting" is a much nicer word!

M.L. @ The House of Whimsy said...

Just catching up today. Also, I wanted to see how Whiskers is doing. I certainly hope he is much better by now!
Your bean bags are just darling and I looooove the "diary" and adorable pencil holder you made for your niece. Lots of crafty goodness goin' on over here. : )
M.L.

Margaret said...

I can't make pretty ones either. I can make good ones, but they all look kind of blah.

Maria Ontiveros said...

Someone just posted a recipe for red velvet cupcakes recently with a pretty topper. I'll have to go look for the link!
Rinda

Maria Ontiveros said...

Hi Deb,
It was Sharyn over at Living Artfully who had this great looking post:
http://sharyncarlson.typepad.com/living_artfully/2010/01/red-velvet-cupcakes.html#comment-6a00e553e8d96888330120a83c9e74970b

Rinda

humel said...

lol! I go more for the taste than the look to be honest, but then they don't last long enough in this house for anyone to actually look at them much... So can't help you with any tips, sorry. They look good to me, anyway :-)

Rhona said...

Deb, if you email me (link in my sidebar), I'll send you on an icing recipe and some tips. These were some cupcakes I made recently ;) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PhRvMzfwL_M/SzEplsgi_BI/AAAAAAAAEK0/IGb8zkHN6_Q/s1600-h/IMG_2121_edited-1.gif)

Stephanie @ La Dolce Vita said...

My best hint is to use a soup ladle to put the batter into the cup. Fill it the same amount each time, and wipe the bottom on the side of the bowl so it doesn't drip everywhere. Most recipes do best if you fill the liner about two-thirds full. The frosting just gets easier with practice. Pillsbury makes frosting in a cool-whip type can, though, where you just squeeze it out and swirl and they look pretty! And Michaels has very reasonable cake decorating classes - once you learn how to do the frosting for a cake, you can do it on the cupcakes. Sorry this ran so long! good luck!

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