I cheated with a Betty Crocker cake mix. I have said several times that I am not 'super woman' nor do I pretend or wish to be so I see nothing wrong in making good use of a cake mix. And if it happens to be a good quality one like Betty Crocker which are worth every bit of the £2 they cost plus a few extra ingredients thrown in then that suits me just fine. I still have to mix the ingredients, pour the mix and bake it don't I?
I purchased a couple of mixes and decided to go with the chocolate one. I was sorely tempted to add a bit of chocolate mousse into the centre of each cake but my home-made frosting is alread y pretty light and mousse-like that I worried there would be nothing in the middle to push (and hold) the cupcake poke into.
I hoped to do a swirl of two tone frosting but the kitchen was so hot yesterday and this frosting separates if you put it in the refrigerator taht it kinda melded into one despite putting it into the bag in separate spoonfuls.
Still the look and colour scheme was pink and blue and they turned out pretty good. This may look a bit 'peachey' coloured but it's actually a lovely shade of pale pink. There was an odd-ball cream one which I used to test out the sprinkles and see which I liked best. The blue sugar crystals just weren't big enough or blue enough for me so I abandoned that idea.
In the end I went with just the bigger pink strawberry glimmer crunch. There is always a worry that the decorations will be like the old 'candy balls' you used to get (and still can), all hard and a bit OTT to bite into. Did (does) anyone enjoy them on cakes I wonder?
I braved putting the pink sprinkles on before going to bed, uncertain if they'd bleed into the frosting or go real soggy. As it happens they were softer and just right and didn't bleed or affect the frosting in any way so that was a good call.
And because I made up 24 cupcakes but only actually needed a baker's dozen I packaged up the extras which I took to work and decorated up with more ribbon and tags, even adding a little plastic bag of baby cupcake pokes to finish them off with and dressed them up with a baby bottle tag. I gave these to the gals who were expecting so they could take them home and share them with family. And I even managed to take my single 'guinea pig' blue and pink sprinkled cake all packaged up for the gal at the restaurant (Nicole) who had been so helpful with our booking as a thank you. She even helped us put up the bunting and decorate the tables.
This isn't the best picture - I ended up being busy organising the games so didn't get around to taking the all important pictures and this is just the cupcake table she had set aside for us complete with plates, napkins, cupcake stands and even a bit of space for the smaller gifts. Their diaper cake gifts took up a smaller table all by themselves.
I didn't actually get to enjoy one myself but I have one in the kitchen downstairs and I'll enjoy it tomorrow with ice-cream which is the way cake should be eaten in my opinion. LOL!
I love an opportunity to bake cupcakes and I especially love when my 'yummiest ever' frosting recipe works out well. It has been known not to work a time or two and I've had to start all over again but when it works well it's worth the effort. See that's why I cheat on the cake - so I can spend my time making the frosting from scratch.
Enjoy!
Suezie
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