Buttercream Bliss

This past weekend I took a Continuing Education class called Buttercream Basics at my local University. While there I learned how to make a perfect buttercream and at the end of the day walked away with a beautifully self decorated cake that I couldn't even eat. Oh the joy's of being gluten intolerant.

Thankfully buttercream is delightfully gluten-free so while all the dignified, mature people around me cleaned up their work stations, I sneakily piped the extra buttercream in my pastry bag onto my palette knife and ate it off on the sly. I wasn't sure whether licking spoons and eating extra buttercream was permissible but I couldn't help myself.
Turns out if was perfectly permissible (I got caught, whoops) and I guess maybe everyone around me was either just boring or dieting. Honestly, who could resist even a little taste?

The head Chef and instructor of the class walked us through all the steps of making the buttercream, applying it to the cake and then using it to decorate and embellish. In particular, she showed us how to make roses using a special rose 'nail.'
"Would anyone like to try?" She asked once she'd completed her perfect looking buttercream rose. No one said anything and we all looked at each other.
"Anyone?" She asked again.
"How about you, Rebekah?" someone said. For some reason a few of the other students had come to the conclusion that I was really good at this cake decorating stuff.
Hating the spot light and having everyone looking at me, I began to shake my head no.
"Why don't you try," Chef said, holding the nail and piping bag out to me. Put on the spot and hating to disappoint, I obediently took the offered tools and awkwardly held them while the rest of the class looked on.
Somehow I managed to pull it off, creating my first ever, half decent, buttercream rose. Rather proud of myself, I placed it atop my cake and admired for a moment.
"Would you like to color the leftover buttercream and make colored roses?" Chef asked me as I began to clean up. Pausing, I looked around. Everyone else was leaving already but the idea of having colored buttercream roses was tempting.
"Sure!" I answered. And that's how I found myself as the only student left in the kitchen coloring buttercream on my own and chatting with the Chef and her assistant. It was crazy cool!

   

From my perfectionist point of view, the roses I'd created were quite crude. But my logical self was quick to jump in.
"You're a beginner," logical me told perfectionist me. "And besides, at least they look like roses!" Amazingly for once, perfectionist me didn't have a comeback.

Overall, the class was amazing, but I think the best part was being the only student to go home with colored buttercream roses on her cake... even if I couldn't eat it. Guess I could always just eat all the buttercream right off of it...

Watermelon Cupcakes

I love food. In particular, good tasting food. There's food, and then there's good food. Take for instance these watermelon cupcakes:

They look delicious don't they? Yeah, they taste amazing. They're supposed to look like little watermelon's but that's not the best part. Not only do they look the part,  they taste the part as well. The icing actually tastes like watermelon. No joke.

The next best thing to eating good food is having someone else make it for you (someone who also does the dishes). If you're not so lucky, the next best thing to that is to make it yourself. If you're highly independent like I am, the idea of that doesn't bother you so much (I also really like baking and cooking so it's all good). After all, you have complete control of the finished product.

I guess perhaps what I'm trying to say here in a roundabout way is that I made these cupcakes... and I'm more than a little proud of that fact, apparently. But honestly, they're so darn good that I just cannot help myself. And I'm not biased. My friends would agree with me because I somehow talked myself into sharing them (okay, lets just say if I ate them all I'd have felt guilty so to avoid that I decided to share. Purely selfish intent).

Anyway, I'm done bragging. Here's the recipe if anyone wants to try them for themselves just to make sure I'm not telling outrageous fibs here (hint: I'm not).



Watermelon Cupcakes

You will need:

Mini paper baking cups
1 (18.25-oz) package vanilla cake mix (I used a gluten free mix)
Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box
1/2 tsp. green food coloring paste
1 cup butter, softened
1 (32-oz) bag powdered sugar
3 Tbsp. watermelon-flavored gelatin (from 3-oz box)
1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp. red food coloring paste
Large disposable decorating/pastry bag
1/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips


To make cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place paper baking cups in mini muffin tin (you can also use regular size if you feel like having bigger cupcakes).

2. Prepare cake mix according to package directions for cupcakes, using water, oil, and eggs and adding green food coloring. Bake for about 10-12 minutes, or according to package directions.
Cool in pans on wire racks for ten minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

3. In large bowl, beat butter and half of powdered sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in gelatin (dry) until blended. Gradually add remaining powdered sugar alternatively with milk, beating until frosting is smooth and spreadable. Beat in red food coloring.

4. Insert a large star tip into decorating bag; fill with frosting. Pipe frosting onto cupcakes. Decorate with mini chocolate chips to look like watermelon seeds.

Voila! Enjoy.