Think Spring!

I named these "Think Spring!" cupcakes.  I wanted to make a green velvet cupcake for St. Patrick's Day, but didn't get around to doing it.  Since I had the ingredients, I decided to make them in honor of Spring.  (We actually had a snow storm on the first day of Spring and I still have patches of snow in my yard!)

I found the basic recipe on the internet, but I used Jones' Green Apple Soda in place of the water called for in the recipe.  You can't really taste the apple, though.  The recipe also called for 1 box of vanilla pudding and 1/2 cup yogurt or sour cream.   I used about 1 cup of yogurt, instead.  Green food coloring was added to get a nice shade of Spring Green.  The result was 24 good-sized, very moist cupcakes.  If I had filled the cups a little less full, I probably could have gotten 30 cupcakes that would still have pleased the average person.

Here is a close-up of the inside:

This design was from What's New, Cupcake?, by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.  The cupcakes were iced with buttercream frosting.  Mini-marshmallows were cut in half (on the diagonal) and rolled in colored sugars before being placed around the cupcakes in rows to form the flower petals.  Candied licorice was used for the stamens.

Hello, Cupcake! & What's New, Cupcake? Books

These are absolutely the best cupcake books for amateur bakers.  Written by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, the recipes are simple and the decorating ingredients can be purchased at just about any grocery or convenience store.  The designs are really cute and while they look hard, each is broken down into pretty easy steps.  Decorating the cupcakes is usually somewhat labor intensive, but the overall effect will draw rave reviews!

In this blog you will see some of the designs from the books.  From the first book, Hello, Cupcake!, I have made the spaghetti and meatballs, sleepover, and sunflower cupcakes.  My next post will be the chrysanthemum cupcakes from the new book, What's New, Cupcake?

Spaghetti & Meatballs anyone?

I took this idea from the Hello, Cupcake! book.  These were vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting.  The frosting was squeezed out in strands to look like cooked spaghetti.  Seedless strawberry jam was used to simulate spaghetti sauce.  Ferrero Rocher chocolate halves stood in for meatballs and white chocolate shavings were used in place of parmesan cheese. 

A little closer look.