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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Lady Bug Cupcakes





So, let me start off by apologizing for my recent blogging hiatus. Just because I haven't posted in a while does not mean that I haven't been baking however, so not to worry! Even though the story of these cupcakes is a sad and tragic one, I figured I'd share it with you all so that you can experience both my highs and lows of baking! 

As I've mentioned, I am taking a Wilton basic cake decorating class. In our third class, we focused on cupcake decorating! As an avid cupcake enthusiast, let's just say I was more than excited to attend this session of my Wilton class! Unfortunately, the night was more or less a disaster before it even began. Without getting into the gruesome details, the night ended with my new fancy cupcake carrier and one dozen homemade cupcakes in the trash! It was terrible. Luckily, when I got home, I had some extra cupcakes set aside to decorate that I didn't bring to class. I managed to muster up the motivation to decorate a few of these before throwing in the towel for the evening. 

I thought these little lady bugs were a perfectly cute design for summer! Before class, I baked two dozen classic yellow cupcakes using a Duncan Hines mix. I then whipped up a few batches of Wilton's vanilla buttercream frosting and chocolate buttercream frosting to use for creating the design. When making black frosting, it's best to start with chocolate buttercream frosting since it is already a darker color. Check out the Wilton's buttercream frosting recipes on their website! I used Wilton's icing colors to dye a variety of different colors to use in class. The colors for the lady bugs were the most challenging, since red and black are very dark and rich colors, but don't get discouraged, it CAN be done! Here's a tip: frosting colors darken over time, so if your red is looking a little pink-ish at first, stick it in the fridge in an air-tight container and check on it in about an hour. You should see an improvement!

Luckily, I made it through the class and ended up learning how to create a bunch of beautiful frosting flowers and a variety of other very cool cupcake designs with different decorating tips! I am excited to whip up another batch of cupcakes to try out all of these new techniques on another day - hopefully sans tragedy! 

Anywho, check out the Wilton website for tons more tips on cupcake decorating! Best of luck and happy baking! :)

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