700 Cupcake Project

It's here! A new post after a very long, involuntary hiatus. Much has gone on in the last couple of weeks. I can't wait to be able to share with you, so stay tuned.
Among the many events, I had the honor of baking 700 cupcakes to donate to an event put on by Giving Children Hope. After the confirmation of this opportunity, I proceeded to freak out! You see, when I found out that they would like 700, I was in shock. I expected maybe a couple hundred, but never anything like this. I spent about a month having anxiety about what I potentially have gotten myself into. Knowing that as a full-time worker, I would not be able to bake 700 cupcakes in one day, I knew that I would need to bake the cupcakes in advance. I then worried about where and how I was going to store these cupcakes. Then, thoughts wandered to which recipe I was going to use. Then, how was I going to use my lack of creativity to my advantage and make these cupcakes something I was proud of? Then, when was I going to bake all of these? Between work and night classes, I hardly have the time to eat and get myself to bed at a decent hour, let alone bake 700 cupcakes. I put myself on organized mode and made myself a calendar, where I proceeded to map out everyday of the ending weeks of March and the first few weeks of April. I had it written down when I would get supplies, when I was going to bake, when I was going to make frosting, and when I was going to decorate.
As for storage, my sig-o graciously volunteered his mini dorm room refrigerator, which from experience can be set to be so cold that it would actually freeze anything that is put into it. I had planned to put all the cupcakes in the mini fridge, but as more and more cupcakes accumulated, I was running out of room for them. In the end, I moved all the space taking beverages (milk, juice, water) from the in-home fridge to the mini fridge. Then, all of my cupcakes fit neatly on top of cookie sheets in the in-home fridge.
After one month of planning and freaking out, two weeks of baking, gathering supplies, and yards and yards of saran wrap later, I have what you see here. Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention. Throughout the whole process I was worried about how I was going to transport these minis to the event that was 45 minutes away from me. I had plenty of ideas, but a friend who owns a pizza parlor gave me the advice of using pizza boxes. My sig-o volunteered to pick up 5 boxes from Costco and was successful! Yay sig-o! Unbelievably, 5 boxes were not enough so I found some like-pizza boxes at work that people had not needed and reused them (think green).
As for the recipe, I turned to one of my favorite blogs, smitten kitchen. The frosting, I used a recipe of equal parts of shortening and butter, double vanilla extract and as much or as little powdered sugar to get your desired consitency.
The day finally came and I packed up the large boxes carefully in my car and slowly drove the 5 minutes of freeway. When I dropped them off, I received positive feedback. At the actual event, I received positive feedback. All in all, I would say it was a success!
I was so elated to be able to contribute to this event. It was not only about pulling out my checkbook and contributing. It was about me putting my heart and soul into what I love to do and using it to contribute to what I belive in. Would I do it again? YES! Because of this experience, I now know what to do and what not to do. The next time I attempt a similar task, I will be more prepared and more efficient.

Katie's Birthday Cupcakes

This past weekend was Katie’s, one of my oldest friends, birthday. I’ve known her since the 4th grade! To commemorate the occasion, I decided to bake her a few cupcakes. I had imagined cupcakes frosted with lavender colored vanilla frosting and white swirls all over its surface. What I ended up with was not exactly what I had planned.

Let me first point out that the yellow cupcakes turned out very well. They were moist and tasty.


The problem came when making the frosting. You see, being my stubborn self, I decided to deviate from the instructions of making the frosting. Instead of adding confectioner’s sugar to the butter and then slowly adding milk, I decided to mix the butter and milk first and then slowly add the sugar. I got this idea from a royal icing recipe that I had once made. That royal icing turned out superbly well, but apparently there’s a difference in making frosting and making royal icing. Before adding food coloring to the frosting, it looked the way it was supposed to. However, once those colorful droplets hit the mixture, ahhh! The frosting had a consistency like that of curdled cheese! Perhaps the frosting could have gotten that way from too much mixing? After a taste test, I decided to use the frosting and see what I could make of it. The swirls didn’t work out as I would have liked merely because I couldn’t find the fine tip that I thought I had. Thus, personalized cupcakes had to have sufficed. When I got to the party, no one seemed to know the difference. All’s well that ends well.

My problem used to be making cakes that were too dry and frostings that made the cake look better than it tasted. After this incident, it seems to be the opposite. With words of encouragement, my sig-o told me that since I already know how to make non-curdled frosting, I just need to combine it with this moist cake experience to bake the perfect cake next time!

Both starlight yellow cake and vanilla buttercream frosting were from "Betty Crocker's Cookbook".

**Learn from my mistake and follow the directions for the frosting**

Starlight yellow cake:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or stick margarine, softened
1 1/4 cups milk
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 large eggs

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners.

Beat all the ingredients with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into cupcake liners until 2/3 full.

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, remove from pans to wire rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:

3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter or stick margarine, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 to 2 tablespoons milk

Mix powdered sugar and butter in medium bowl with spoon or electric mixer on low speed. Stir in vanilla and 1 tablespoons of the milk.

Gradually beat in just enough remaining milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable. If frosting is too thick, beat in more milk, a few drops at a time. If frosting becomes too thin, beat in a small amount of powdered sugar.