For some odd reason, I never consider my icing sugar inventory when I start a baking project. I just assume my cupboard has an infinite supply of icing sugar. So nothing grinds my gears more than it being way past midnight (me thinking that’s an ideal time to start the frosting) and discovering I do not have enough icing to make a crumb coat let alone icing the whole thing. What sucks more is I purposely made an ingredient run to the grocery store that day and still disregarded adding icing sugar to the list. 

Solution? Make my own!

What you need: blender or processor, granulated sugar (or regular sugar for you n00bs) and corn starch (1 cup of sugar : 1 tbsp. corn starch). Grind the sugar into a powder then add the corn starch. The corn starch acts as a binding agent so that the formerly known sugar can react properly with the other ingredients in your frosting recipe. 

Chocolate cake with meringue frosting.

And who doesn’t know who this is?

So Iron Cupcake: Earth is underway. The challenge? Chili peppers. My personal challenge? I very seldom cook with chili peppers let alone bake with them! Regardless, I love playing with flavour combinations and bombarding my co-workers for their opinion. Will bake for feedback and compliments.

**VOTING ENDS SEPTEMBER 4! VOTE NOW AT No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner!**

Before I get into the nitty-gritty and the seductive descriptions of what became my end product, let’s give it up for the prize donors:
Cakespy, Jessie Steele Aprons, The Cupcake Courier, Taste of Home, Fiesta Products and Hello, Cupcake.

Orange Chocolate Cupcake w/ Mango-Chili Frosting

This is a light and moist chocolate cupcake dancing in orange juice and tip-toeing in spices. I didn’t want to make this cake kick you in the mouth for the sake of kicking you in the mouth. The mango frosting is a marriage of citrus and fire providing some heat and cool down.

Orange Chocolate Cupcake w/ Mango-Chili Frosting (makes 24)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 ¾ cups flour
• ¾ cup cocoa
• 1 ½ tsp. baking powder
• 1 ½ tsp. baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup orange juice
• ¼ tsp. chili powder
• ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp. ground cloves
• Mango-Chili Frosting (recipe below)
• Orange slices (I used red naval oranges for the colour)
• Crushed red pepper flakes

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Line two muffin tins.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder and soda in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla and beat on medium. Slowly stir in the orange juice until it’s fully absorbed. Add chili powder, ground cinnamon and ground cloves and stir into the mixture. Spoon the batter a little over half-way full into the cupcake wells and bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool completely.
3. Prepare the frosting (recipe below). Place the red pepper flakes into a saucer. Spread the frosting evenly over the top of the cooled cupcake and delicately roll the edge of the cupcake into the crushed flakes. Top the cupcake with an orange slice.

Mango-Chili Frosting

Ingredients:

• ½ cup butter; softened
• ½ cup mango purée (one ripe mango through a food processor does the trick)
• Zest and juice of one lime
• 2 tbsp. honey
• 4-5 cups of icing sugar (varied to desired spreading consistency)
• ½ tsp. chili pepper
• Drops of tabasco sauce

1. Cream butter until light and fluffy. Add mango, lime zest and juice and honey and beat well. Mix in icing sugar one cup at a time. Mix in chili pepper and tabasco sauce to your liking.

There’s a mini cake under that mini skirt!

This is actually a prototype for an engagement party I’m doing in October and so far… FAIL:
1. The top part made of fondant kept flopping over (solution: use chocolate?)
2. The skirt shape is a bit off (solution: will shave it a bit for an A-line skirt)
3. Turns out that Wilton’s ready to use black frosting tastes like licorice (solution: use dark chocolate instead?)
4. Not crazy about the dress design (solution: go with simple… and don’t think about creating designs at midnight)

I’m open to suggestions and criticism. Thanks!

When DID cupcakes jump the shark?…

Right about now.

Cake Wrecks made me laugh in painful spurts. Enjoy!

I found this article helpful, if anything for the friendly peptalk. From The Business of Cake Decorating #9: Pricing your cakes by Earlene Moore…

Of all the comments (with a question) I hear over and over and over again is. “I feel funny about charging people for what I do. I know it takes my time but, I am learning with every cake. How much should I charge for my cakes?”

Why do you feel funny about charging people for a product that they request from you? Do you feel funny about paying to have the oil changed in your car? Do you feel funny about paying for cookies in the store when you get to the check out stand? I don’t think I have ever heard anyone get to the check out stand and tell the checker “I would like these cookies but I really think that they are only worth 69¢ instead of the 89¢ that they are marked. When people request a product from you it has worth. How you determine the price is by the ingredient cost, the time you put into that product and the quality of that product. Then there is also one more thing that figures into how much you can charge - your reputation and the demand for your product.

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Disclaimer: Not altogether pleased with how Grover or the sign turned out. And Big Bird’s eyes should be smaller… Okay, I’ll stop now…

Continue reading.

If you’re familiar with what Reddot is, you can be both my friend and my enemy. Made for a friend’s Farewell From Work party.