Cupcakes? I can do that ... I think ...

Do you ever get the feeling that you want to try something, and you have no idea why? Well, that's me with cupcakes. They look so perfect on TV, and yet so easy. I couldn't help but think, "I can do that!" Ok, the part that sparked my interest the most was how exactly do you get that lovely mound of frosting on the cupcake?

Combine that with a mom that works next to the cake supply store in Fairfax, and you have a recipe for exploring something new.

My first attempt was a cupcake creation for the 4th of July family reunion picnic in Buffalo, NY. This picnic deserves a post of its own, and when I have a quiet moment, I will definitely put something together for it. But until then, I'll stick with the cupcake.

Leading up to the event, Harris Teeter kept having huge sales on cakes, so I just picked a few up every time I was at the store. I don't know if it was the heat wave, it being summer, or what, but I kept picking up "lemon supreme" from Duncan Hines. For all of you bake-from-scratch folks out there, hats off to you. But for me, I have the patience of a toddler, and the organization of a hoarder. I cannot measure that many things with the accuracy needed for a cake. So, box for me it is. All of my "creativity" can be focused on wacky frostings, which  I think (speaking from no expertise whatsoever) can be more forgiving of mis-measuring than the cake itself.

So, my box cake in hand, the only next thing I needed to figure out was the frosting. But what flavor?  After polling friends, neighbors, and colleagues, I settled on raspberry for the lemon cake.

My first stop for recipes was the Internet - somehow, I ended up on Easy Cake Ideas , a site that listed a million different buttercream, ganach, and cream cheese frosting recipes. It gave you a basic one, and then had some options for tweaking them. PERFECT for me.

For this cupcake, I used the whipped lemon buttercream frosting (with lemon curd), and added to it a few teaspoons of raspberry jam. I am sure some baker out there is freaking out, but it was really yummy!

To decorate it, I used what I had in the kitchen - a decorator kit my mother in law gave me from the Pampered Chef. Keep in mind, at this time in my life, my go-to way of frosting was a butter knife and a slab. Nothing more (and nothing wrong with it). So for me to even take out the kit from it's place in the back of my pantry was a huge step alone.

Now, I have my kit - what do I do with it. To be honest, I just hoped it worked like an easy share camera and pointed and shot. And ended up with a messy cupcake, but I was playing around. Here's what they ended up like.

Flower, or Tinkerbell Poop?

My experiment above taught me two things. 1) Box cakes are amazing and all I need 2) I need a bigger gun ... I mean, frosting tip.

I googled "frosting tip" and confirmed, yes, I needed a big one to make that delicious pile of frosting on the cupcakes I see on other blogs. I can't agree with Half Baked more on this. Here's a picture of popular choices these days.

A quick phone call to my mom (do they EVER stop coming to the rescue) - and she picked up two at the cake store for me. I have no idea what they are, but I will post a picture of them soon.

Her other find ... disposable frosting bags. Yes, I know you can use a Ziploc bag, but when you have no idea what you are doing, I found these sturdy and easy to use. When I did use a Ziploc, my death grip caused an explosion. I'm sure I'm not holding the bag right, but I tell you - the disposable ones held up, death grip sumo strangle hold and all.

It's all in the tip, really. It is. Once you have the giant tips, you are a swirl away from an awesome looking cupcake. Here are the first cupcakes I frosted with my new tips.

Margarita cupcakes with Tequila Spiked frosting * recipe coming soon!

Lemon cupcakes with Lemon Frosting *recipe coming soon!

Paired with my new toys, and curiosity, and general stubbornness and you have a new "thing to do with spare time." I can't say hobby, because that implies I'm actually good at this. Which I am not. Honestly, in most cases they look better than they taste (which doesn't say a lot). Occasionally I have gotten lucky in my online recipe search and modification combo, and will share the amazing "finds" from online with you, along with my tweaks.

So there you have it. Old dog, and 1 new trick.

What "something new" do you want to try?