First up was strawberry buttercream, made with some fresh strawberries. I cut off the very edges of the berries to get rid of the seed thingies, and then smashed them up and blended them in with some vanilla buttercream. I piped that onto the dark chocolate fudge cupcakes and great googly moogly, did they turn out beautifully!
Next I made some chocolate buttercream with half semi-sweet and half dark chocolate. I figured that would cut nicely the sweetness of the sugar in the frosting. I crushed some cocoa-roasted almonds (such as these) and dusted the tops of the cupcakes to finish. YUMMY.
One of the perils of piping with buttercream frosting is that it is suceptible to heat. Since it is made with butter, it can get melty sitting at room temperature or go soft from the heat of your hand in the piping bag. But I can't bear to make frosting with shortening, which gives it this greasy sort of taste, so I just tried to keep the frosting cool at the various stages of decorating, and it seemed to work out okay. The chocolate, in fact, gave me some trouble because it wasn't very pliable after I stuck the piping bag in the fridge for a few minutes. I had to knead it around a bit to get it working. But to me the taste of real butter in the frosting is totally worth it.
Next I think I am going to make my first attempt at some sort of cake or cupcake with a filling... stay tuned!
3 comments:
they.were.amazing. Thank you!!! I seriously think I had a romantic moment with them at one point... Never stop baking (and never stop sharing!) :)
These look great, and sound so yummy! Also very impressive pictures!
When you are done making the buttercream, if you add just a heaping tablespoon to a quarter cup of shortening (or palm oil, which I get at Whole Foods, same concept, just a little healthier) it adds more stability without the taste.
Thanks for the tip Katie, I will have to try that! Would def. be handy.
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