My sister’s surprise party

This weekend was my big sister’s surprise 30th birthday shindig and I did all the baking for it. She loves cookie cake, so I made her one just how she likes it - soft cookie, fewer chocolate chips than usual (I know, she’s a freak, right?). The only problem was that she doesn’t like a lot of icing, so I was only planning on using a frozen buttercream transfer that I designed (okay, modified from an existing piece of artwork) and not icing a design on the edge. Unfortunately, I think my pan was smaller than what the recipe required and it baked over the sides of my disposable pizza pan. I had to trim off the excess, which left a ragged edge that had to be covered. (I started with a specific pattern, but once I saw the Xs weren’t working out, I changed the plan…I’m not thrilled with the edging, but it was okay.)

This was my first attempt at a frozen buttercream transfer. For my first try, I think it came out pretty well. The icing held air pockets, which is normally bad, but I think it added to the sassy skull I was making. It made it more pirate-like, and when you’re dealing with a skull and crossbones, that’s a good thing. My sister thinks girly skulls are cute (so do I), so I was really excited to do this for her. I also had some issues with the icing not smoothing completely, but that will come with practice. Here is the cake:

I know the edge is bad, but isn't she cute?

I also made strawberry daiquiri cupcakes, complete with liquor and all. The cupcakes had diced rum-soaked strawberries and strawberry puree in them, and the buttercream icing had rum and puree. I found the recipe online, made some very minor adjustments to the cake batter and added some food coloring to the icing. I iced and decorated them to look like little cups of frozen daiquiris. They turned out really well. In fact, the cupcakes themselves are hands-down the most perfect cuppies I’ve ever baked. Unfortunately, party-goers thought they were too pretty to eat and I came home with most of them. Come on, people! I don’t spend 8 hours baking and decorating something for you to not eat it! You’re stealing my joy. Punks.

I even used my cupcake tower to display them. I was so proud.

Close up - sorry about the glare.

It took forever to find the right candy to make the lime wedges.

All together - it was a success!

Now that my Wilton class was canceled, I don’t know what’s next. I’ll probably make another layered cake to practice smoothing buttercream and piping decorations. I also want to start playing with gum paste and fondant figures. I can promise that my next post will feature this blog’s first-ever GOOD picture. My friend Pamela is a talented photographer and decided to take some shots of my pink babies while she was over shooting jewelry for my sister’s website. I can’t wait to show off her talents and see my edible art represented in a good picture.

For now, though, it’s SassyCakes, out!

Cookies ‘n cream cuppies

Note to self: go buy another Wilton cupcake pan. That other one sucks and totally ruined 9 potentially perfect cuppies.

I’m learning that I need to trust my instincts more often. I thought it was extremely odd that the recipe asked me to cream the butter with milk. Creaming, by general definition, is beating together butter (or shortening) with sugar until it’s light and fluffy. Now, I’ve never gone to pastry school or anything, but it struck me as very odd that I would be asked to cream butter with milk, and then, several steps later, STIR in the sugar. But the recipe said to…so I tried…and then got irritated, threw out the lumpy butter/milk mixture and started over. I creamed the butter and sugar together, added the vanilla and then decided whoever wrote this recipe was on crack.

Flour is the protein of a recipe, and if you overbeat the protein, your end product will be dense and disappointing. I have learned, from the one baking class I took, that you should always add your flour last and only mix until fully integrated. So why on earth did the recipe ask me to add the flour, beat for 2 minutes, then add egg whites (which you usually beat separately and then fold in) and beat for two more minutes????

I said screw it. I added the whites next, beat them with the sugar and butter for two minutes, and then added my flour mixture. Since this is the first time I’ve ever make cookies ‘n cream cupcakes, I don’t have anything to compare the end result to, but I’d say my way came out pretty tasty. I wasn’t a huge fan of the icing recipe I used, but all in all, I’m satisfied with the result. Oh, and another note to self: next time you pipe the icing on the cuppies, double the icing recipe. I only got to ice three cuppies my way before having to just slather a little on the top to get them all iced with what I had.

Here’s the end result:

Oreos + cupcake + icing = happy birthday!

I hope the birthday girl enjoys her treat! Isn’t that cupcake box adorable? I just love it - I hope she loves it, too. Happy Birthday, Amanda!

Oh, and I know my photography skills suck. Leave me alone. It’s hard enough learning to ignore recipes!

SassyCakes, out!