The finished Cupcakes

The pink frosting kept oozing out of the top of the bag.  My hands were covered.  Total mess.  

The yellow bag sort of burst mid-swirl (with the tiny 6-point start).  Luckily the blob of frosting plopped down on the cutting board.  We quickly moved to Plan-B, a lovely yellow glob in the center of each cupcake.  The pink decorating looked the best... the green didn't seem to set very well.

But all in all, they definitely look both homemade and edible.  I baked them for a birthday party Serge and I are going to tomorrow evening.  

Icing on the cake

 This is the recipe for Magnolia's buttercream frosting, and wow is it sweet.  I actually had to run back to the grocery store to get another box of powdered sugar.   

I think I got a sugar contact high just mixing the 6 cups (that is nearly 2 full boxes) of powdered sugar.  

The easy part was mixing.  Just slightly more challenging was deciding which 3 color combinations to make based on the options on the back of the food coloring box.  All three colors were adapted anyway.  

I started by spreading a layer of icing on each cupcake.  Then onto the fun part- the decorating. Inspired by my new Martha Stewart icing set, I filled bag one with pink frosting and the leaf-tip fixture, envisioning delicate daisies and intricate designs.  The frosting oozed out the top of the bag.  For the yellow and teal, I sliced off a corner of a zip-lock instead, put the tip in the bag, and spooned in the frosting.

The results were not exactly Martha-Stewart pretty.  

Cupcakes a' bakin'

Vanilla cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery cookbook.  I found the recipe on the internet and even bought self-risking flower.  The batter is full of all sorts of healthy things, like organic butter and eggs, and sugar.

However, I make them the old fashioned way...mixing everything by hand.  This makes the finished cupcakes exponentially more healthy (for me, at least) once you factor in the manuel labor.  My arms are both sore.

I kind of made a mess, but I love how this picture shows my ipod speakers where I listen and repeat Russian vocabulary, my CFA calculator, and a running log/my water bottles.  My entire life is basically represented in my kitchen mess.

I would like to brag that I had zero spillage when pouring the batter.  Must of have been the perfect consistency. 

They looked nice when I took them out of the oven, which I'm still not convinced cooks evenly.  Note the guy in the back row got a little squished when I banged him on the top of the oven rack.  I burned my hand a little too, but those were our only causalities from the baking part of the adventure.