cup your cake!

so yesterday i got ambitious about farah's bridal shower and started making cupcakes...

things got a little out of hand

i.e. me trying to paint mint leaves with chocolate...

?
what?

gee thanks martha for totally unrealistic cupcake expectations. (seriously... tiaramasu cupcakes, cupcakes that look like hedgehogs made of almond slivers and baby piped buttercream, fondant cupcakes, a cupcake that honestly had a piece of gourmet chocolate sliver that looked like wood,and every other cupcake imaginable! i almost tried my hand at swiss vanilla meringue frosting...yeah right. i don't own a blow torch and i could see myself stubbornly holding a grill lighter over the stiff peaks late into the night and well into the morning muttering things about the perfect cupcake.)

in the end i settled for dipping yellow cupcakes with rolos in the center (i really have to get rid of the 5 billion bags i bought when i went on a rolo cookie binge last year) in a semisweet heavy cream chocolate glaze thing.

of course i didnt stop to think that in order to keep the cupcakes pretty and moist i'd have to cover them
minus the pretty.

towels on glaze?

not so much.

no bueno
mucho a lot.

ill have to re frost some of them pretty today.


because i can do that!

my roommate dello (beth dellostritto, the italian goddess of all kitchens) gave me a buttercream recipe that is failproof, all you do is whip it up in your mixer, (there is always too much of it too.) (it's glorious) put it in a gallon freezer bag, chill it for ten minutes cut a hole in the corner of the bag (depending on how big you want your swirls) and... WHALA!



(picture coming soooon)

recipe for the perfect buttercream (can be vanilla or chocolate)
p.s. i cringe giving this recipe away because it makes me realize that now people will be counting how many cupcakes of mine they eat. i'm almost certain that if you eat above six your arteries will clog and you will die.

happy way to go though...
absolutely.

the title of it is
DELLO'S AMAZING-ness:

1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. butter
4 c. (approx) powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla (opt)
approx. 4 tbs milk
cocoa to taste.


yeah.
don't the first two lines just sound like a heart attack?

yum.

i've got to go to spinning more...