Cupcakes Galore!

Ok, so I may have taken this baking thing a wee bit too far… But I wanted to do something for the girls’ classes at school for Easter. I went to my handy dandy cookbook and discovered something I haven’t seen since my grandmother was alive and baking.

I have vivid memories of her back porch refrigerator always containing a jar of green colored coconut. And Bactine, but that’s a whole other story…

Today I’ve baked 8 dozen mini-cupcakes and one dozen regular sized ones… The regular ones were cooled and put into the freezer unfrosted to be ready for this weekend. The other 8 dozen?

Here’s their story…

Using the Cake Dr.’s recipe that includes coconut flavoring, this morning I started baking. I found sweet little mini-cupcake papers at Sur La Table, then misted them with a bit of vegetable oil. My mister is from Pampered Chef, but you can find them all over the place now.

 Do not use the propellant style spray oils (like Pam)… they will make your cakes too crispy on the outside.

Using a 1TBSP sized ice cream scoop, I loaded up each paper with one scoop of batter. This makes all of your cupcakes come out the same size… and keeps you from dripping batter all over the place while you are working with these tiny cups.

Look at how pretty and perfect those cakes came out! I baked them at 350 for 12 minutes. Test your ovens folks… I have to adjust my time down every time I try to make something.

When the cakes were completely cooled off… no kidding, you’ve GOT to let them get totally cool…  I whipped up the Cake Dr.’s butter cream frosting recipe. For 48 of these mini cupcakes, I needed 1 1/2 recipes of frosting. I could have just tripled the recipe, but my big mixing bowl isn’t big enough for that much powdered sugar. 

Tip: if you cream your butter on med. speed until it lightens up, your end frosting results will be lighter in color as well… watch…

       

I found this decor kit at Sur La Table as well.  If you are adept enough with a spatula or frosting bag, be my guest and go that route… This girl needs help, so there.

I started by using the star tip to swirl on enough frosting to cover the tops of the cakes. And this was pretty…

 

But THIS is fun… Take coconut flakes and shake them in  a jar/zipper bag with a few drops of food coloring… Voila’! Grass!…

Cute, huh? Pour your “grass” into a bowl and dunk that pretty little cupcake right into it….

 

Now that you’ve gotten your “grass” put on, top this with a few jelly beans. The thicker the frosting, the more you can smoosh your eggs on…

Can I get a collective “Awe!” These are just so darn cute. They might be big enough for two bites each. Adorable!

Here’s the cakes for Jillian’s class… they each get two :-)

These have been such fun to make today! After tennis, I’ll finish up Abby’s cupcakes. In this warm weather, they need to be refrigerated to let the frosting set. Tomorrow I’ll deliver!

Now, what was Baby saying about Mommy not baking???  ;-)