Ladybug Cupcakes: They are cute-sy but I love them!

Wanting to actually complete an entire cupcake, top hat and all, I did a lot of mixing and baking yesterday! After a quick trip to Michael's Craft Store for some Meringue Powder, Black Gel and Frosting Tips and another trip to CVS for M&Ms (dark chocolate so, of course, they are healthy!), Twizzlers Nibblers and Pretzel M&Ms (I needed these very badly to complete my cupcakes..my replacement snack in place of snacking on frosting and cupcake batter!), I was armed and ready.


I began with half a Meringue Buttercream Frosting recipe just for taste-testing purposes and playing with my new and old tips. The Meringue with the shortening has absolutely no appeal to my "delicate" palate so it is now a practice-only frosting stored in my fridge! Surprisingly, I actually quite missed the typical butter-y taste found in Buttercreams. The consistency was great though so maybe I will try a mixture of half shortening and half butter if I can drag myself away from the buttercream I am finally getting the hang of making!




Side Note: I am trying to form leaves with leaf tip #67 and it does not appear to be working! Every time I pull away to form the point of the leaf, the result is broken edges. How do I remedy this??




Wilton's Meringue Powder Buttercream Frosting Recipe

	(for flowers with upright petals)
1 teaspoon	Clear vanilla extract*
2 tablespoons	Water
1 cup	Shortening
1 tablespoon	Wilton Meringue Powder
1 pounds	Sifted powdered sugar (approx 4 cups)
	(for borders, flowers with petals that lie flat)
1 tablespoon	Additional water
	(for writing, making stems and leaves & frosting a cake)
2 tablespoons	Additional water

STIFF: MEDIUM: THIN: *Note: Clear butter & clear almond extracts can be included with or substituted for the vanilla. Flavorings can be up to a total of 2 t. DIRECTIONS: Sift the powdered sugar and meringue powder into a large mixing bowl and set aside. Cream shortening, flavorings and water. Gradually add sifted dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until all ingredients have been thoroughly mixed together. Blend an additional minute or so until creamy.

I baked 24 cupcakes using "My" Vanilla Cupcake recipe. While I thought this was a recipe I really enjoyed, it is not quite as moist the 2nd day while the original Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcake recipe tasted the same to me over a period of days. I will have to go back to the drawing board on that one!

For the buttercream frosting, I used the same recipe I have been using as of late with a touch less than 1/2 teaspoon of almond oil as the flavor was a bit too strong last time. The consistency was nice and thick! I added green gel food coloring to the mixture and continued adding until I achieved a grassy green coloring.

For the ladybugs: Martha Stewart recommends tinted marzipan but I was in no mood to tint my fingers red so I played with red M&Ms and Twizzlers Nibblers. The Nibblers are almost square with no texture on top. I thought if I could round off the edges they would be the perfect ladybugs but then I realized an M&M already works perfect so why fix something if it "ain't" broke?!

Armed with black gel and red M&Ms, I closed my eyes and turned around 3 times then Voila! I miraculously had little red ladybugs. Be sure to do the ladybugs ahead of time so the gel can harden a little.


For the grass: I very lightly frosted the cupcakes before I began the grass to give the frosting something to grab onto. You do not have to do this, however, I found when I did not take this step, the "grass" sometimes did not adhere when I pulled away. Using Wilton tip #233, I formed grass after grass after grass and it was beautiful! Like looking at a green as green can be putting green. Place the ladybugs on the frosting quickly before it begins to set or they will not adhere or at the end you can add a few more pieces of grass and adhere the ladybugs.






I absolutely loved these cupcakes. While they are quite cute-sy and not very manly, I am a girl so I get to be girly. If you would like to place put your manliness on hold for just a moment, you are more than welcome to enjoy these Ladybug Cupcakes! Afiyet Olsun!

Buttercream Frosting: Try Outs Open Today

Tips:

• Sift powdered sugar before creaming with butter for a thick, consistent buttercream
• Separate eggs while cold for easy separation then allow egg whites to warm to room temperature (about 30 minutes) for a faster whip and better volume

While I may not have perfected the cupcake, I feel confident the Vanilla Cupcake I am currently baking is pretty tasty so I have moved on for a few days to frosting. Because really, what fun is baking if you cannot share with others and I am not so sure I can impress very many people with a bare cupcake. So frosting it is!

Friday it was full steam ahead. I whipped up a Meringue Buttercream, a Strawberry Meringue Buttercream and a Vanilla Buttercream.

Meringue Buttercream Frostings:

I whipped and whipped and whipped egg whites and granulated sugar over my home made broiler until the sugar dissolved and again I whipped until I had a nice sticky meringue with my handheld mixer. True, a handheld mixer, is not the best choice for concocting fabulous creations but it works in a pinch although I did have to take a break from time to time to let the mixer cool. I am unsure if this affected the frosting or not. I was never able to achieve "stiff" peaks in my meringue but it was nice and sticky and fairly thick so I began adding my cubed butter, 3 sticks of it! Needless to say, the frosting was very buttery and quite rich. Overall, I had a decent Meringue Buttercream Frosting even if it was too buttery for me.

Don't worry if your mixture begins to curdle upon adding butter! Continue mixing until you achieve a smooth consistency.

For the Strawberry Meringue Buttercream, I pureed 2 ounces of strawberries then mixed it with half of the already prepared Meringue Buttercream Frosting. The frosting was much better than the plain Meringue Buttercream as it masked the butter flavoring and it tasted like 100% real strawberries!





Side Note: Can anyone tell me if pureeing the Strawberries instead of simply chopping them up made a difference in the consistency of the frosting? The first time I added chopped strawberries to my first Buttercream Frosting, the frosting instantly took on a more liquid-y consistency. This time, with the pureed strawberries (resulting in a decently thick sauce), the consistency of the frosting did not change much. I do not know if this can be attributed to the ability of the Meringue Buttercream Frosting to hold up better or if it was the change in texture.

Meringue Buttercream Frosting Recipe (courtesy of http://www.perfect-wedding-day.com/buttercream-icing-recipe-1.html)

4 oz (1/2 cup) egg whites
8 oz ( 1 cup) granulated sugar
12 oz (3 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
Pinch of salt

1. Combine the egg whites, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl and place over simmering water.
2. Continuously beating with a whisk, heat until egg whites are hot and all the sugar is dissolved (~140 degrees). If the sugar is not completely melted, your final product will be grainy, so make sure!
3. Remove from the heat and place on the mixer. Whisk on medium speed until meringue is stiff, and the mixing bowl is cool to the touch. The meringue will be white with a bright sheen, and very sticky!
4. Switch to the paddle attachment, and on medium speed add the butter a few cubes at a time. Please note, if the meringue is not completely cool, the butter will melt instead of combining evenly.
5. Continue beating until all the butter is incorporated. At one point it may appear as if the mixture has “broken”, looking watery and separated like curdled milk. Continue mixing…it will all come together, I promise!
6. Increase speed to high, and beat until smooth.

Now for the real success story:

I now understand why you should sift your powdered sugar before attempting to mix up a buttercream. Your one pound of powdered sugar suddenly transforms to twice its amount and makes for a lighter, yet thicker buttercream. I can only hypothesize that my frosting came out better because there were absolutely no clumps in my powdered sugar and every last bit was able to smoothly mix with the butter while in the past, without sifting, the powdered sugar and butter never creamed together so well possibly due to tight balls of sugar in the mixture. With the sifted powdered sugar, the buttercream blended so well, my mixer was on the verge of losing the mixing fight. At one point, I had to take a break before the mixer overheated because of the nice, thick consistency of the buttercream.

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 pound powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk, if necessary

I did not need to add milk.


Taste Testing:
Finally, with the help of Soner, I was able to taste test my various frostings with cupcakes I baked earlier that day! While Soner liked the consistency of all the frostings and for the most part the taste, the Meringue Buttercream had way too much butter for him and the Vanilla Buttercream had too much almond oil. He enjoyed the Strawberry Meringue Buttercream but found the texture a bit odd. I believe if the frosting had been piped, he would not have had a problem with texture. Myself, I loved the Vanilla Buttercream, that nice kick of sweet Almond Oil along with its thick, creamy consistency. I am not a big fan of the Meringue Buttercreams but who knows what the overall taste, texture and consistency would be if my egg whites had formed stiff peaks as they should have.