Flower Pot Cupcakes: Violets

See more at my blog:
http://sugarspundreams.blogspot.com/

Products:
Wilton Gum Paste Flower Kit
Wilton Gum Paste
Hershey's milk chocolate morsels
Craft Wire
Food Color (Preferably a gel kind as opposed to the liquid colorings)


Vanilla Cupcake Recipe: Cook Time: 40 min Yield 24 cupcakes

Ingredients
* 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour * 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour * 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened * 2 cups sugar * 4 large eggs, at room temperature * 1 cup milk * 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 2 (1/2 cup-12 capacity) muffin tins with cupcake papers.

In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:
Yields-4 cups
Directions

1 pound bittersweet chocolate
Ingredients:
* 12 ounces semisweet chocolate * 3/4 cup egg whites (4 to 5 extra-large eggs), at room temperature * 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar * 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar * 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt * 1 1/2 pounds unsalted butter, at room temperature * 3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract * 3 teaspoons instant espresso powder, dissolved in 1 1/2 teaspoons water * 3 tablespoons dark rum, optional

Chop the chocolates and place them in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan simmering water. Stir until melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.

Mix the egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Place the bowl of egg whites over the pan of simmering water and heat the egg whites until they are warm to the touch, about 5 minutes. Return the bowl to the electric mixer and whisk on high speed for 5 minutes, or until the meringue is cool and holds a stiff peak.

Add the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, while beating on medium speed. Scrape down the bowl, add the melted chocolate, vanilla, espresso, and rum, if using, and mix for 1 minute or until the chocolate is completely blended in. If the buttercream seems very soft, allow it to cool, and beat it again.
ALL music clips are UNDER 30 seconds.
I do not own rights for, and do not intend any copyright infringement of:

Placebo-Where is my Mind
• Label: Cheap Lullaby Records
• Copyright: (c) 2006 FireEgg Recordings
• Duration: 3:42 minutes
• Genres: Alternative Rock/General, Alternative Rock/Indie & Lo-Fi, Folk/Contemporary Folk, Folk/General, International/Europe, International/General, Pop/General, Rock/General
• ASIN: B000QYQN4W

Third Eye Blind-Motorcycle Drive By

• Release Date: November 7, 2006
• Label: Jade/Milan Records
• Copyright: 2006 Barclay, a Universal Music label / 2006 Milan Entertainment, Inc.
• Total Length: 59:24
• Genres: Dance & DJ/Electronica
• ASIN: B0015T9E7U


Empire Records Soundtrack-Money
• Release Date: October 6, 2009
• Label: Mercer Street Records
• Copyright: (C) 2009 Mercer Street Records. Mercer Street Records is a trademark of Downtown Music, LLC.
• Total Length: 36:48
• Genres: R&B/General
• ASIN: B002ROFDQ8

Category:

Howto & Style

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• how
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• icing
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[luvuJesusmySavior]

Very clever! Thanks for posting! I've really enjoy watching all your baking video so far! BTW: The music in this video made me miss listening to Third Eye Blind! I'm gonna gonna have to start listening to their songs again :)

[snoopypumpkin1]

@luvuJesusmySavior

I'm so flattered. Thank you for your kind words.

Gotta love the Third Eye, right?! :)

[loveshistory]

When I was taking my course my teacher was like, "I wouldn't eat that, but you can make really pretty trinket boxes out of it!"

[snoopypumpkin1]

@loveshistory

Exactly!

I have recently been trying to find alternatives to fondant or gum paste. Laduree uses marzipan sometimes on the outside of cakes-tho it's really only for ones that could mesh with the almond flavor.

I have a friend too who let gum paste dry, and she then put flavoring into boiling water, and steamed the flowers. They took up a bit of the flavor, which is an interesting development.

Everything on a cake should taste wonderful...this really bother me. :)

[jess09senior]

i just bought this kit a few weeks ago,i already figured out how to do a rose, and my first one was perfect. i got that gumpaste at walmart. and some people think fondant taste nasty, i love it. i think it taste like marshmellows, and sugar lol, but i love working with it. and whats good about it, if you dont like fondant, than peal it off your peice of cake because theres buttercream underneath

[snoopypumpkin1]

@jess09senior

to be tinted white so u don't see flecks of color thru ur fondant.

U can just cut pieces of things(like a strawberries) VERY thin and put them into a dehydrator until it dries-the grind it to a powder. It helps people accept fondant easier.

U can also make ur own marshmallow fondant- People like it more than regular.

:)

[ohthedrama]

You're absolutely amazing!

[jess09senior]

it took me 3 hrs to brush the color onto 3 of those things and it still only looked ok. i think there is more than one way to make a gumpaste rose, i saw it done 2 different ways and ive done it both ways but one worked more than the other for me.

[jess09senior]

lol, i mixed some pink gel food coloring directly in and after it dried i used a metallic petal dust and lightly brushed it over. I work in a bakery, and we ordered in some red premade gumpaste flower sprays, and they sent us white instead of red and then just sent 2 different shades of red petal dust,

[snoopypumpkin1]

@jess09senior

YAY! My first rose didn't really look like one...It's the hardest part of decorating for me. I need to commission u to do all my gumpaste flowers. :)

Are u using powdered food coloring to brush on white flowers? or mixing the color directly in?

Yeah-most people don't like fondant at all. You can always incorporate flavoring into the fondant-I put a few tbsps of powered flavoring into the dough as I knead it.(tho-the flavoring has to be the same color as the fondant, or has to