Mother's Day Flower Bouquet Cupcakes

When I first began this blog last August, I had a wish for myself.  I hoped that, although I got started by finding recipes and designs that inspired me and creating them as exactly as I could, one day I would suddenly start having my own ideas for additions, substitutions, and designs of my own.  Slowly, this has been happening and I can't tell you how rewarding it is!  I've admired so many bakers and bloggers ability to make amazing confections...and how they find inspiration EVERYWHERE!  Well, I still begin by finding images of whats been done before, but, sometimes, I come up with something on a whim.  Like these flower bouquet cupcakes I made last night.  How exciting!!

I'm certain something like this has been done before, and I would find it with a bit of Googling, but I didn't see it first and then make it.  No, instead I was sitting with my Husband while he ate a late dinner and I just started playing around with leftover cupcakes and icing.  And I love what I came up with!!

These are such HAPPY cupcakes.  Don't they make you smile?  The colors and the illusion of tiny little flowers piled high....sigh.  I just love them.

While I was looking at them I immediately thought of Mother's Day and how perfect they would be to give to one of the most important women in our lives.  And, honestly, they are just so easy to make.  Really!!

Begin, of course, by making a batch of cupcakes.  I used some leftover strawberry ones from my Ladybug Cupcakes.  You can use any flavor you like, but some of the cupcake color will show through the flowers, so bear this in mind when coming up with your color scheme.

Next, make your buttercream.  This is my favorite recipe:
Buttercream Icing

2 sticks butter, room temperature

4 cups confectioners sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

In large mixing bowl, beat butter on high speed until fluffy.  Add three cups of sugar, one at a time until combined.  Add vanilla extract and milk, along with last cup of sugar.   Beat until smooth.  Add more milk, one teaspoon at a time, to reach desired consistency of frosting.

 Split the icing into as many colors as you'd like to use.  I used yellow, purple, and pink.  Then fill a piping bag fitted with a Wilton #2D tip (place each color of icing into a separate bag).  Use the photo below for reference while reading the written description that follows:

First, pipe a circle of flowers around the outside of the cupcake (first cupcake in photo).  Then, fill in the exposed middle area with four flowers (second cupcake in photo).  Pipe four more flowers on top of the middle four flowers.  Lastly, pipe one flower on top of the second layer of four flowers, centered (third cupcake in photo).

When you've completed the flowers, use a pair of tweezers to add a single dragee in the center of each flower:

Here is the succession of steps:

And that's it!  Couldn't be simpler!!  I used green for the demo, as I had some left over from making the grass on my Ladybug Cupcakes.  The color doesn't work for the "bouquet" I put together, however it would be nice for next St. Patrick's Day or Christmas.  But it's neither late-winter or mid-winter, so let's enjoy the light, bright colors!!

Would your Mom be impressed if you gave her something homemade rather that store bought goods?  I know mine would.  So, even if you don't make this particular design, play around and see what you can come up with.  Mom's love a little thoughtful creativity.  :)  

Spring Cupcakes with Two-Color Swirl Icing Tutorial

My last post came about from my need for something 

bright and cheery to offer relief from the constant rainy gloom.  It must have worked because the sun finally came out!  However, it's still freezing outside, so I'm going to try and will the temperatures to rise with another spring inspired treat.  :)

Since experimenting with color swirl icing by painting the icing bag and layering several colors at once to the piping bag, I've been wanting to try a third method I'd read about - using several piping bags filled with different colors fitted into one bag with one tip.  Does that sound a little complex?  It's not.  Check it out:

In two separate piping bags, fill with the colors you've chosen, careful to leave plenty of empty space at the top, as shown above.  Snip the ends  off about an inch high.

In a third empty piping bag, fit with your piping tip.  Make sure you cut the bag high enough  that the entire tip design is outside of the bag.  Don't cut so far above the design tip that it will pop out from the pressure of piping.  You can also use a coupler.

Place the two bags filled with icing on top of each other.  Very gently press them flat, as shown in the photo above.  Make sure the icing reaches the snipped edge of the bag, but don't press so firmly the icing will squeeze out.   Also,  leave empty space in the top of the bag to allow for twisting of the bag once inside the empty bag.

Gently slide the icing filled bags into the empty bag fitted with the  piping tip.  Hold the  empty bag upright when sliding the icing bags in and slowly shake up and down until both icing bags are inside of the tip.  You may need to remove the icing bags and start over if both of them don't reach the tip.  Once the bags are both snuggly sitting inside the tip, twist the top of the bag tightly to prevent icing from coming out of the ends when piping onto your cupcakes or cake.

Once you have placed the icing bags into the piping bag fitted with the tip, test to make sure both colors  pipe out.  Do this by squeezing gently but firmly with consistent pressure.  If only one color pipes out, that means both bags are not inside the piping tip so only one color is able to pipe out.  You will need to repeat the process of placing the icing bags into the empty bag with the piping tip.

And that's all there is to it!  It actually takes longer to read the steps than to do them.  I only had two glitches in my first attempt:  Initially, I did not cut the tips of the bags high enough, so the tip was partially covered and the icing didn't squeeze out evenly since it was blocked.  Also, I didn't flatten the bags at first, which resulted in only one bag reaching the piping tip so only one color came out.  Because it was not coming out of the bottom, the pressure of squeezing the icing from the second bag squeezed out of the top and made a mess!  So, snip about and inch off of the color filled bags, and flatten them.  The rest is a breeze.  I am looking forward to mixing it up with more than two colors at a time.  Of the three methods of multi-colored icing, this is my favorite.  The colors don't change from mixing together and there is plenty of color, not mostly white.  Here are examples of all three for comparison:

Swirl achieved by painting piping bag.

Swirl achieved by layering several colors on top of eachother in one bag.

Swirl achieved by two separate bags of color placed in one bag.

I'm glad I gave each method a try.  I think they can all be used nicely in different situations.  I tend to be a person who likes the last thing I tried best, which could be the reason I'm so fond of #3 at the moment!  Actually, though, I think I like the clean look it offers.  With the pink/white icing in the second photo the color mix worked out nicely.  With several different colors not of the same shade, the mixing can really change the colors, as in this photo:

The original icing colors I used were neon green, neon yellow, neon blue and neon pink.

Whatever way you choose to create icing color swirls they will look great.  Isn't it nice to have options?!  Until next time, here are my photo offerings to spring, sun, and warmth - my baked good version of a rain dance!!