One of the easiest treats to dress up
for holidays and birthdays is the cupcake. All you need is food coloring,
cake decorator gel and frosting, and a little imagination.
You will need
your favorite box cake, any flavor
red, blue, yellow, and green food coloring
white icing (recipe below)
green, black, pink and orange decorator gel
yellow and white decorator frosting
decorating tip
white and multi-colored sprinkles
multi-colored non pareil sprinkles
yellow and blue sugar
circus peanuts
red licorice whips
red and white gumdrop
cupcake liners
Prepare cake mix as directed. If desired, you can make colored cupcakes with
either a flavored mix, such as cherry, or add a few drops of red food coloring
to a prepared white mix to make pink, blue to make light blue, and so on.
Put cupcake liners into muffin tin and fill liners as directed on box
cake mix. Bake as directed and allow to cool thoroughly before frosting and
decorating.
Prepare the white icing by following the recipe below. When finished, separate
into five small dishes. Add a few drops of food coloring to each bowl and
stir until thoroughly mixed. You can make pink , light green, light blue,
purple, and yellow, or mix to make whatever colors you like.
White Buttercream Icing
16-ounce package confectioners sugar
6 tbsp butter or margarine, softened
3 to 4 tbsp milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
In a medium bowl, with mixer at medium-low speed, beat all ingredients
until the icing is smooth and of easy spreading consistency. Add a few drops
of red food coloring, 3 for light pink, 6 or so for dark pink.
Decorate
That's really not much to decorating cupcakes, especially in the eyes of
your admiring children. Just a dollop of frosting is artistic enough for
them! Here are a few simple tips that will help you decorate your holiday
cupcakes.
Piping - Using the tip on the decorator frosting, pipe strips across
the frosted cupcake to decorate like an Easter egg.
Sprinkles - The beauty of sprinkles is that there is no perfection
involved. SImply drop them and let them ly where they fall. Use contrasting
colors, and mix colors when pleasing. A great way for kids to decorate with
sprinkles is to have them dip the top of the cupcake right into the container
of sprinkles.
Sugars - Using colored sugars
is easy, and doesn't have to be messy. Simply dip the entire top of the frosted
cupcake into the sugar for a blanket look. Dip the edges of a frosted cupcake
to create a border, and then decorate with a sprinkling of non pareils.
Bunny - Cut the bottoms off of two circus peanuts for the bunny's
ears. Cut two small pieces of circus peanuts for the cheeks (see photo).
Cut the tip of a gumdrop for the nose, and cut two teeth from a white
gumdrop. Use licorice whips for whiskers and black decorator gel for the
eyes.
Frosting only - Use the different colored frostings to decorate one
cupcake. Spread half of a cupcake with one color, and carefully spread the
other half with another. You can also spread a full coat of one color, and
dot the center with another. Get creative and try swirls or other shapes
by using only frosting.
Be sure to store your cupcakes in a tightly covered container so they do
not harden or go stale. That is, if they last that long!
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One of the easiest treats to dress up
for holidays and birthdays is the cupcake. All you need is food coloring,
cake decorator gel and frosting, and a little imagination.
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