For my best friends, I have somehow found myself always on cupcake duty when it comes to baby showers, wedding showers, bachelorette parties, what have you! Not to say that I'm the best baker in the world as I've had many failed attempts at baking what I think will turn out to be the best thing anyone's ever tasted. Baking, unlike cooking to me, is a hard, objective, detail-oriented science, one that I sometimes don't always have the patience for. But I do have days when I wanna get it perfect and use the creative part of my mind that has been all too often neglected in the world of work, errands, sleep, repeat. I am bound to NOT make life about filling everyday with those THINGS and always maintain a creative outlet. Kinda like this blog. So here goes nothing.
So I was given the task to make cupcakes at my best friend's second baby shower very last minute. The theme of the shower was Sunflowers, a very unique and summery theme that isn't too stereotypically baby girl-esque. Love it! So I went totally literal and decided to forgo trying to create an awesome cake/frosting recipe this time and spend all my energy and time into creating Sunflower cupcakes--focusing on the presentation and decor rather than homemade chemical concoctions of what might end up tasting like delicious cake or might end up being bit into and spat out almost immediately.
I used basic Duncan Hines yellow or chocolate boxed cake. I know, I'm such a fraud! I also used store bought frosting but I used Duncan Hines whipped white frosting. This way I could color the frosting whatever colors I wanted. I also used yellow and green food dye for the flower petals and leaves. I got the idea to used crushed oreo cookie for the center of each sunflower then proceeded to decorate around them. It helps to skin a small circular portion of the top center of the cupcake so that when you sprinkle the crushed oreo cookie, the crumbs adhere better. It also works better if you remove the frosting of the oreo prior to crushing or you'll get these white clumps that mess with the texture.
I created homemade frosting piping bags by using large zip lock bags and cutting a V shaped whole on one bottom corner of the bag. This gave me the ability to make very detailed petal and leaf like frosting designs on these mini works of art. I piped 4 green leaves equally spaced apart in each quadrant of the circular cakes. Then I piped yellow petals overlapping the leaves on the circumfrence of the oreo cookie center. Let me know what you think! This is a very tedious and time-consuming project and after getting carpal tunnel and straining my eyes out in one night, it should be obvious that I made each one with alot of love and care. They were the hit of the party and were specially showcased and the feature dessert!
Bon Appetit! Enjoy!
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