Advisory Cupcake Tea

At school I have an advisory group.  I have half girls and half boys.  I found the cupcake book in May at the lower division book sale and the original intent was to use it to spice up my advisory treats.  So, naturally when I told the kids in advisory, I also mentioned tea parties.  The girls were all over that.

So, we had a tea party at my house last week and we decorated cupcakes.  A few of them were already cupcake masters as they and their moms had taken a cake decorating class before.  They taught me a thing or two!!

But the afternoon was lots of fun!  I think having an all girls advisory would be great.  Although I like my boys, it is different with them in the room.  Kind of like having two different conversations.

Here is the whole group:

And Julia and Kimberly wanted a shot to go on the Berkeleypuppy instagram.

Julia and Kimberly with Corky.

They were the first set of Berkeley students to meet Corky.

High Heeled Cupcake Drama

Today was the last day of weekly cupcake school.  Next week I am on vacation and then we all decided that since school started in August we would go to a monthly cupcake school in the evenings.  I'm so happy!  I have loved cupcake school and the camaraderie it has provided.  It has provided lots of calories too, but I intend to bring those to school for others to eat. 8-)

Today our goal was red velvet high heeled shoe cupcakes with a cream cheese butter cream frosting.  This is what they look like in the book:

High heeled shoe cupcakes from the Cupcakes, Cookies, and Pie Oh My! cookbook.

Were they a lot of work?

You betcha!

Allyson and Pamela did a great job on the cream cheese butter cream frosting.  It was delicious.  The red velvet cupcakes were baked by Linda and were mighty tasty.  Both recipes came from the Trophy cookbook.  While the icing was being made, Linda and I were busy making the soles of the shoes from graham crackers.

Linda and I sawing into graham crackers.

Sawing into graham crackers is a delicate operation.

It is better to score the graham and then break it.

We decided that it would be better to just use a Milano cookie that was already in the right shape.  When we were all done, the frosting was ready to be put in the decorator bags. Since this was the first class for Allyson and Pamela, they needed to learn the basic cupcake swirl.

Putting icing into the bag.

Stirring our teal icing.

Making pink icing.

Linda fills another icing bag.

Pamela practices the basic cupcake swirl.

 After they got the basic swirl down, we needed to take the graham cracker soles and coat them with chocolate.

Allyson is coating her sole with chocolate!

Then we decorated the tops of the cupcakes with sugar and other delights.

Decorating the tops of cupcakes.

Decorated cupcakes.

Here are the cupcakes after assembly.

Close up of the cupcake shoe.

 Pamela and Allyson made an amazing vegetarian lunch for us after we finished with our cupcakes.

Caprese sandwiches and peach and ricotta sandwiches.

Kale and quinoa salad with apples.

Our final product.

Our final product.

Pamela and a high heeled shoe.

Allyson and a high heeled shoe.

Linda and a high heeled shoe.

Our final product.

They were tough, but I would do them again.  We think we found some ways to do them better the second time around.

Second Cupcake Class: Mexican Cupcakes

 Hola! Today was Mexican cupcake day and we took a recipe out of Jan Moon's Southern Living's Big Book of Cupcakes for Lime Frosting.  They were on an almond vanilla cupcake.  While it was meant to be a Jan Moon recipe as well, that recipe didn't turn out so well.

Photo of all of the cupcakes.

It was rather greasy and there was a problem with the photo I took of the recipe where 2 and 3/4 cups of flour looked like 2 and 1/4 cup of flour.  Not a good change.  But the recipe still called for a cup of shortening.  So, Linda found a similar recipe that was more slimming. It was very  tasty, we all agreed.

Our cupcake picks.  Little skulls.  Very cute!!

But we did stick with the Lime Frosting, as it was the main Mexican Cupcake ingredient.  It called for some special ingredients, which we could only find at Beans About Cooking, a great little cooking store in Belleair Bluffs, FL. They were the only store that had lime oil.  (They also had the vanilla paste and red velvet food coloring.  I highly recommend them!)

Photo of lime zest and limes.

We needed to zest some limes, get some fresh lime juice and cream some butter for our frosting.

Linda was in charge of zesting and getting fresh lime juice.

Photo of the green gel frosting color.

 Then it was time to add the green frosting color.  It says to add it a toothpick bit at a time.  Makes it a bit scary.

In the next photo you can just make out the toothpick I am holding and pressing against the frosting to get some of that green gel to come off on the white frosting.

We dyed it until we had a nice soft green color.  Then we stopped.

Little did we know that adding in the powdered sugar would change things.

We added in the powdered sugar.

 When we added in the powdered sugar, things when from light green to a bright green.  Weird.

Bright green frosting.

 Lesson. Dye at the end.

Kim and Lindsey filled the bags.

 Then we started frosting cupcakes.  We taught Kim the basic swirl.  She was a fast learner.

Kim prepares to frost some cupcakes.

Some of the frosted cupcakes.

Linda waiting patiently for a frosting bag.

Finished Mexican cupcakes. 

Finished Mexican cupcakes.

Final verdict: Frosting is a keeper.  Especially with the dried mango and sprinkle of cayenne.  It tastes like lime sherbet.  Very good.  The vanilla cupcake is great too!

Next week: Coffee Cupcakes!

First Cupcake Class: The Basic Swirl

Monday night I started getting ready for cupcake school.  I made everyone cupcake templates so that they could practice their basic swirl:

Above is the Trophy Cupcake video for how to make a Basic Swirl.  THAT is what we were practice today.

One the menu:

Trophy Cupcakes Chocolate and Creamcheese Buttercream Frosting

Southern Living's Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing and Vanilla Cupcake

To make the template, I took a ramekin and drew out circles for everyone to have as a cupcake circle to follow.

Here is a photo of the cupcake template.

I also frosted a few cupcakes myself.  Just for practice.

Chocolate cupcake with basic swirl.

Chocolate cupcake with basic swirl from the top.

Class started today at 10 am.  I had also bought cupcake swirl tips for everyone.  Michele was bringing her stand mixer for the chocolate frosting and I was making the creamcheese buttercream.  There are a couple of things to keep in mind:

• Bring your ingredients to room temperature
• read your recipe completely
• Have everything measured out
• Have your work space clean

The buttercream went off without a hitch.  We did learn that when filling the pastry bags that air bubbles are to be avoided.  We don't know how to avoid them though.  If you do know, please leave your suggestions down below.  Jennifer Shea didn't give us any clear guidelines on that in her video on how to fill a pastry bag.

Dani filling her pastry bag.

We filled our pastry bags and began to work on our templates. We were only interrupted by

Jammy looking in the window and wanting a cupcake.

a ravening horde of wild dogs running through the house looking for free food on the floor.  Not finding any, the white leader tried to leap on the table to get some.  He was collared and muscled outside.

The practicing went on.

Lindsey filling a pastry bag, notice gap at bottom between tip and top of frosting.

Lindsey squeezing buttercream frosting down to fill the gap.

First attempts at the Basic Swirl.

Attempting the Basic Swirl.

The Basic Swirl was simple, but difficult at the same time.  It does take practice and a steady hand.

One Swirl complete.

Dani is a machine!

Fred has to leash Jam as he tries to eat frosting and cupcakes from the table.

Dani and her perfect frosting swirls.

I had a slightly different frosting tip and my first attempts at swirls looked like poo-poo piles.  I switched to 6 pointed stars or the wave pattern.

CDs six pointed waves.

By now, we felt confident enough to jump to the cupcakes.

Linda concentrates on the cupcake.

Michele finishes her cupcakes.

Lindsey starts on her cupcakes.

A perfect swirl for Lindsey!

CD had a different frosting tip, so she made 6 pointed waves.

Michele and Linda show off their best cupcakes.

Dani and her best work.

Toasting cupcakes!

I served lunch. Then we moved on to the second icing.  Then we planned for next week.

A set of waves.

Lindsey's final cupcakes.

Dani's final cupcakes.

Michele's final cupcakes.

Linda had a little mishap.

The inaugural cupcake class.

Next week: Mexican cupcakes.  Mmmmmm.