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Monday, January 12, 2009

Sunflower Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for a women's ministry baby shower on Sunday. I got the idea from one of my favorite books Hello, Cupcake! by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.

Some things I learned:

1. I need to work on my frosting skills. I'm not great at making petals and they looked a lot better as I went along.
2. Let the frosting "rest" between flowers. Otherwise the heat from my hands softened the frosting too much and it got really runny.
3. I would use food coloring paste instead of the liquid. That would also decrease the risk of the frosting getting too runny or soft.
4. I used melted chocolate chips instead of the chocolate frosting for the ladybugs. I didn't want to open a whole jar of frosting for a few teaspoons. I used a toothpick to decorate the ladybugs and used the melted chips to "glue" the bugs to the flowers.
5. I wouldn't decorate them ahead of time. I could make the cupcakes and put the green frosting on a day ahead, but the Oreo cookies get soggy (yuck!).
6. I'd only use the regular size Oreos (not the Mini-Oreos) until I get better at frosting them. They were very hard to frost because: my skills are lacking, they're really small, my frosting was soft, and my skills are lacking.

Overall, I think they turned out cute and I even got asked to make some cupcakes for a bridal shower coming up. Sounds like fun to me.

7 comments:

Cindy said...

Those are so cute! I wouldn't say your frosting skills are lacking - it looks like you did a great job. And now you get to make some for a bridal shower. Maybe a cupcake business in the future?

jill m said...

That must have taken a lot of time to decorate, but the cupcakes look great! I'm impressed!

Jessica said...

The cupcakes didn't take too long to decorate, really.

1. frost the tops with green
2. place an Oreo on top
3. frost around the edges (goes faster as you get better at it)
3. cut the leaves from Fruit Roll-Ups and place on the cupcake
4. and make the ladybugs

I think it took me about an hour to decorate (that includes melting the chips and coloring the frosting). They look more complicated than they really are.

The Deals said...

They look amazing Jess- so cute! It would have taken me all day and they still wouldn't look that good!

Rachel said...

Adorable!!! I want that book- I have seen it before and it looks fun:)

Denise said...

thanks for visiting my blog.

i wish i was such a cook as you are. what yummy dishes you have here.

and these are ADORABLE!

Rachel Slagle said...

love the cupcakes! they are super cute and you did a great job.