July 4th Baking

My First Blog Post!

A few people have told me to blog or start my own business based on their enjoyment of my baked goods so I'm giving one of those suggestions a try. At best, I become a world-famous blogger. At worst I get to keep track of everything I've baked beyond posting or pinning. Not bad!

July 4th is my favorite baking holiday. It's one day, unlike holiday baking which can feel like a slog.
 I can get as creative as this non-creative type can get, while celebrating AMERICA!

I started in 2012. I had just started experimenting with royal icing on cookies (another blog to come on that later). Sticking with solid colors seemed safe. 

2013 I made a cake. My peanut/butter chocolate combination.  One layer of peanut butter cake, peanut butter filling, one layer of chocolate cake, chocolate frosting.  I'll do another post on that cake. I've made it 4-5 times and it's always a hit. 

2014 I was kind of lazy. I made a chocolate cake from epicurious in a Pyrex pan and decorated with fruit.  I made it twice. Once for co-workers, once for a party.  

This year I had a lot of fun. Vanilla cupcakes, using the linked cake recipe decorated with a flag design. While the picture below is through an Instagram filter, I do have a few tips on the frosting. I have a go-to buttercream frosting recipe that has never failed me.  

It's very difficult to get frosting red and not pink. I use Wilton Gel Colors. and I used half the  no-taste Red get proper red on the first picture.  I had to use the other half of the tub for the second batch I made. You can see the contrast of a really good red vs. the rust color I had going on the second round. Royal Blue is an easy color that requires very little dye to get a good color. For white, usually the contrast between other colors can masquerade all of the yellow tint created by butter and vanilla extract in the frosting. You can tell that in the 2013 and 2014 baked goods.

 This time I used some clear vanilla extract which made my frosting have barely any yellow tint. The extract was a gift from my sister from Mexico. The second round I forgot my clear vanilla and used "super vanilla" extract. It's even stronger than regular vanilla extract and I think it made a noticeable improvement for the cupcakes themselves, but no good for the frosting. The contrast is off and it may have affected the red too since they all come from the same batch.  Still pretty, but not exactly right.

Piping vs Spreading Frosting 

Once you learn to pipe, you never go back. It's actually easier than trying to spread it on and comes out much prettier. I have taken one course on piping and I don't think it made much of a difference. My #32 Wilton tip is what I use for almost everything. I'll do a blog post with all the things you can do with a #32. I use a #3 or #4 for writing but I'm still not good at writing frosting. I think it will just require a lot of practice. 

Cupcake Corer

I think cupcakes are kind of boring unless they have something inside. This round of vanilla cupcakes had raspberry preserves in the middle..  Best way to do that is the cupcake corer. I have tried to explain multiple times exactly how this thing works and people never seem to get it, because it makes no sense. It allows you to add a filling after baking which is for the best.