I haven't been inspired in the kitchen much lately so I haven't done much experimentation in the kitchen lately. And life is getting busier and busier so less time for cooking, unfortunately.
However, with Easter being almost here and a family gathering with the boyfriend, treats had to be made. So I pulled out the Martha Stewart Cupcake book that I got for Christmas from my sister a couple years back and I went hunting for something fun to present.
There were some that I definitely did not want to put the effort into. For example a white fondant embossed bunny on a carrot cupcake. I almost made these adorable sheep with mini marshmallows.
But I found something much simpler and loads more fun, if not messy. They're called Easter Eggs and silly me, I didn't take pictures of the process. D'oh. But this is what the batch looked like in the end!
I used Martha's basic One Bowl Chocolate Cupcake recipe which is my go to recipe when I need to make cupcakes. Few dishes, one bowl, easy instructions and a never-fail cupcake. I can live with that. Or you can use a box mix of whatever cupcake you want. Up to you!
Instead of a mound of delicious buttercream, this involves royal icing. Royal icing is a harder version of plain icing (powdered sugar and water) with the addition of egg whites or merengue powder. This is basically dehydrated and powdered egg white that does not carry the potential for salmonella. I have no problem with egg whites personally but Martha does so I went out and got some. It was available at my Walmart for 4.50 for 4 ounces.
What happens with royal icing is that it forms a matte finish and can be quite elegant. I know Nigella Lawson has a cupcake recipe where she coats the top in white royal icing and then puts a candy flower on top. Tres chic.
This is a bit more labor intensive. But SO COOL.
The recipe I was given was:
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon merengue powder
a "scant" 1/2 cup water
I added in a splash of vanilla to give it a little flavor aside from... sugar. I then beat this all together in my stand mixer until it was nice and smooth. I added a little extra water so it would be a little easier to work with.
In three disposable cups (I don't like having to clean) with three disposable knives I put in a dab of gel food coloring and I really should have used less. These are less "Easter Pastel" and more "Easter Technicolor" but... whatever. I then divided the icing between the three cups and mixed it together with the color. Pretty sweet, no?
I then put them into three lunch ziplock bags (or pastry bags but re: I don't like to do dishes) and snipped the tip off. Make sure to grab a toothpick or bamboo skewer or something equally small and pointy for swirling.
Because royal icing likes to start drying as soon as it's still, you should really only do one cupcake at a time. No assembly line here. Each will be hand crafted, beautiful, and delicious.
Start with a base circle all filled in. Martha suggests meticulously filling it in in a spiral like motion. I say start with the circle and do an approximation of that and then smooth it out with a butter knife. Make sure to wipe it off for the next cupcake though. Then the fun starts.
The easy way to start is to draw three parallel lines in an alternating color... or two. Pick up your swirling device (toothpick, etc.) and draw some perpendicular lines to those colored lines. The result is approximately this:
Another option is to go for an abstract swirl. Draw some squiggles (or dots and dashes, whatever) with an alternating color to your base. Then just squiggle around with your toothpick and it will look something like this:
One idea that was NOT in the book was I made a spider web kind of design by making a star burst with four lines and drawing circles like this:
One thing Martha mentions in the cookbook is that you can use different colors for different occasions. For example, red and green for Christmas, black and white for a Black Tie party, blue and white for Hanukkah, red, white and blue for Fourth of July, orange and black for Halloween... really use your imagination on this one. That's the best part!
A few days later...: When I wrote this, it was just after making them. After about a day, we got a massive, humid warm front in. The cupcakes that were all flat and pretty and matte ended up getting lumpy and bumpy. Humidity messes with sugar (anyone who has ever watched Ace of Cakes knows this). The cupcakes still looked okay but they were bumpy and the colors started to bleed. I think this was because of the massive shift in weather. So either make them the day of or make sure to check your humidity levels before embarking on this endeavor.
I promise I will have more time in about a month to experiment with food again so give me ideas! I'm going to revisit my Arabesque cookbook and see what I can come up with there for ya!
So until next time, happy eating!!!!
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