And I call this one beauty my colorful but festive epic fail.
Last week, I came up with the idea of doing these crazy candy topped cupcakes. You know those popular drip cakes topped with cookies, candies, confetti, etc. you see on baking shows and in magazines? So fun, right? My vision was to take that concept and put it in cupcake form for those of us who aren’t cake making geniuses and want something that can easily be transported to Easter celebrations.
This is going to be GREAT! Oh my gosh, I can’t wait to shoot these babies. <- my thoughts before I attempted to make them.
Fast forward to this week (yes, I’m super last minute these days). I baked my cupcakes, put frosting on them and then is was the moment I was dying to try…time to top these guys with some crazy candy toppings. I started placing a little candy here, a little there and a little more on top. I took a step back to look at it and…it looked like the one year old I babysit got ahold of it and shoved all her candies into wherever they fit. EPIC FAIL!
At this point it was midnight and I’m not a quitter especially when it involves desserts and getting to take photo of them so I grabbed my baking bin (yes, I have a HUGE bin of all my fun baking supplies) and tried to come up with something new.
I pulled out some jars of dye and thought if we’re going to look like a little kid did this let’s really go all out and throw some dye on them. So I grabbed my paint brushes and started splatting. “Wait a second, this doesn’t look half bad” and that’s how these beauties came about. Well and there were a few cupcakes thrown away and a few “i want to rip my hair out” moments in between but that’s not the point.
These cupcakes were my beautiful epic fail and my first adventurous baking success.
Is there time for another story?
Ok, great!
Although I love to cook and bake (mainly bake), I’m kind of a chicken when it comes to being adventurous. So much so that I was gifted fresh vanilla beans one time and was so scared to use them and wanted to save them for a very special baking recipe that it wasn’t until this recipe that I used them.
I found this vanilla cupcake recipe via Sally’s Baking Addiction (if you don’t follow her, hurry and do so now. Just warning you’ll probably start drooling on your keyboard) and it called for vanilla beans. I got so excited as I remembered I had those vanilla beans and have been wanting to step out of my comfort zone a little in the kitchen lately. I dug through my spice rack and found the jar of beans. I looked at the back of the jar and saw “expires 2/10/2015”. Guess you could say I waited a little too long for that special moment…
But I decided to try baking with them anyway since I knew Steve and I would be the first to try them and well if we got sick, it was only Steve wanting to kill me not a co-worker or neighbor (the joys of love and living with your taste tester;)).
Fast forward to pulling these babies out of the oven and O.M.G. Hands down best vanilla cupcake recipe I have ever tried! They had a nice little arch like a bakery cupcake would, good density, unreal flavor and best part they were beautifully white with hints of black specks from the vanilla beans so I felt real fancy handing these out to friends. “See those black specks? I had scraped those in there with a real vanilla bean.” <-so fun!
So let’s end this post like a Modern Family episode with a lesson in life.
All in all, sometimes what you vision in your head does not turn out the same in real life and stepping out of your comfort zone can lead to something beautiful and delicious (like cupcakes!).
Since I didn’t make this recipe and don’t have a third hand to shoot photos while doing the tutorial, I’m explaining how I created them step by step below and with links to the recipes I used!
How to Make Speckled Frosting
Step 1. Let cupcakes cool completely and using a frosting tip, frost your cupcakes.
Step 2. Mix 1 tablespoon of water with a small drop of gel icing color (you can use the regular dyes you find at a grocery store but the color won’t be as vivid).
Step 3. Using a painting brush (preferably one that is flat and even, like this), dip the brush into the dye mixture and gently tap on the sides any excess that is dripping.
Step 4. Hold the brush very close to the frosting and using your finger (wear a glove if you don’t want colorful hands), run your finger along the brush to cause the dye to splat off onto your frosting. Continue doing this all over the cupcake until achieved desired amount of dye.
Step 5. Top with fun candies, I used the adorable chocolate covered marshmallows from Sugarfina and enjoy!
What holiday treats are you whipping up? Any epic baking fails that turned out to be a success?