This was the beautiful layout of cupcakes in the May 2008 issue of Country Living that inspired us to try decorating. We made a from scratch lemon cake (very yummy!) from the book; Cake Decorating For The First Time by Jaynie Maxfield (Sterling Publishing, 2004). We made the Almost Homemade Buttercream frosting that was given in the article (pg. 162). It was wonderful tasting but I don't think we got the consistancy right because this is what we ended up with...
Now, I know that perfection comes with time and practice but I think our main problem was the texture of the frosting. It was not as smooth and firm as what I hoped for.
None the less, the kids had fun and we ended up with great tasting (although not particularly professional looking) cupcakes.
We give Reagan one knifeful of frosting and one cupcake. It keeps her busy. She tends to be a knife licker and I can't handle a licked knife going back into the bowl of frosting. LOL!
I'm seriously considering purchasing Teaching Good Thing's cake decorating DVD. ( www.teachinggoodthings.com ) Does anyone have any experience with this DVD or with cake decorating? Any tips you can share?
2 comments:
Love the pics of the girls. They both look like they are serious and seriously having fun! Your cupcakes are adorable, even if they didn't come out quite what you wanted.
Not knowing exactly what went wrong and what recipe you used, I'd still GUESS that you might not have beat it long enough. Real buttercream (was it egg whites and sugar syrup beat into butter?) is best with a stand mixer and you have to have patience (which I don't so I have to look away for a while). When it first starts whipping you think it's never going to come together, then it seems like it will, and then it will look like it's curdling, BUT, if you hang on long enough it will all come back together to a beautiful silky smooth consistency. I don't know the exact timing but I'm guessing that it sometimes takes 10-15 minutes worth of beating on about medium...
Mmmmm...lemon..yum! I'll take one!
Thanks Glenna! Next time I will try beating it longer. My girls were being impatient but I also didn't realize it would affect the texture. Incidently, this wasn't a "true" buttercream... it was made with marshmallow creme as well as butter and egg whites.
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