I like to think that less is more… so I’m not going to hate on lots of sprinkles or anything like that… but I prefer a little bit of fancy that goes a long way.  These cupcakes were for a 1st birthday party with a bumblebee theme.  I saw a bunch of tutorials online that made super cute bumblebees but I didn’t really feel like messing around with fondant and I didn’t really want them to be cartoony… so I went with a modified version of a Martha Stewart tutorial.

I don’t have pics of how I piped everything, because good grief is it hard to take pics without a timer lol, but I will tell you what I did and hopefully that helps a bit! I’m making lady bugs this weekend with the same concept, so I’ll let you know how they turn out!

Cupcake Classic-Chocolate & Vanilla

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups flour
• ½ cup Dutch process  cocoa powder
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon vanilla

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a standing bowl mixer with the paddle attachment on medium until light and fluffy at least 3 minutes.
2. With the mixer on low, slowly add the powdered sugar and mix until combined.
3. Add the vanilla and 3 tablespoons of heavy cream and beat until on low until combined.
4. Beat the frosting on high for at least 4-5 minutes until it is light and fluffy.  If needed, add more heavy cream to reach your desired consistency.

Source: My Baking Addiction

Itty Bitty Bumblebee:

• Vanilla buttercream
• Yellow food coloring
• Almond slices(2 for each cupcake)
• Black Decorating Frosting

1. Place 1 cup of buttercream in a small bowl and mix with 2-3 drops of yellow food coloring.  You can use more as needed to achieve your desired shade of yellow.
2. Pipe buttercream onto cooled cupcakes with a large round tip.  You want them to sort of look like clouds.  I used my large round tip from Bake It Pretty.
3. Using a Wilton #12 create a small yellow bumblebee on each cupcake.  I started at the “front” of the bumblebee and then squeezed a small amount of frosting out until I had a little bit more than a circle and pulled up towards the back of the of the bumblebee to get a “stinger” of sorts.
4. Place the black decorating frosting in a piping bag with a small round tip (Wilton #4) and draw 2 small lines over each bumblebee.
5. After all of the bumblebees are completed, add 2 almonds to each bumblebee for wings.  Try to match the almond slices, you want them to be relatively the same size.

Happy cupcakin’ …

x0-Jenn

From their website:

I was given the opportunity to try out a few cupcake baking cups from Sutton Gourmet Paper. What better reason to make cupcakes than some super cute new liners!

These liners claim to keep their color and design…. I sure hope they do because I’ve tried MANY liners that are just so cute… but you can’t see their design after you bake them! A waste of 1) time looking for cute liners and 2) money! Uggghhh!

Head over to Cupcakes Take the Cake to read the rest of the review and to see how the cupcakes turned out!

The recipe comes from the Betty Crocker Cookie Book (circa 1963)  that has been in my family for as long as I’ve been alive.  I’ve used this book so many times that it’s got recipe revisions written in the margins, butter stains and cookie dough crusted on every page.  I LOVE IT!! This is one book that will definitely be kept in the family and used forever!  You really can’t go wrong with a Betty Crocker recipe!

ETHEL’S SUGAR COOKIES

¾ cup shortening (part butter or margarine)

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

½ tsp lemon flavoring or 1 tsp vanilla

2 ½ cups Gold Medal Flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Mix shortening, sugar, eggs, and flavoring thoroughly. Measure flour by dipping method or by sifting. Stir flour, baking powder and salt together; blend in. Chill at least 1 hour.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Roll dough ¼ inch thick on lightly floured board. Cut with 3” cookie cutter.  Place on ungreased baking sheet.  Bake 6 to 8 minutes or until cookies are a delicate golden color.  Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

For the icing, I kinda cheated a little bit.  I bought a tub of white whipped Betty Crocker frosting and doctored it up a bit at home.

SUGAR COOKIE ICING

1 tub of Betty Crocker white frosting

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp buttermilk

1. Empty the tub of frosting into the bowl of your electric mixer and beat until smooth.
2. Add the vanilla and mix just to incorporate.
3. Slowly, add the buttermilk until you get a very smooth and much thinner consistency.  You may not need all the milk.
4. In heavy weight zip-loc bags, spoon in frosting into one corner.
5. Cut corner tip to size of desired hole.
6. Pipe frosting onto cookies in whatever designs you like!

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Thank you to everyone who has shown me such loyalty and support!! And thank you in advance for your patience as I continue to work out all the kinks in this move!

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I thought I’d put a call out to all of my fabulous cupcake & coffee friends to see if you’d like to help out with the giveaway!! Of course, I’ll give you full credit and props for your addition to the giveaway on my blog with links and I’ll Tweet about you on Twitter!!

If you’re interested in helping me celebrate my Boggerversary with this giveaway, please email me at betsy@javacucpake.com for details!

Thank you to everyone for your continued love and support of Java Cupcake!!

*Update* As more people hop on board to contribute, I’ll post them here!
1. Java Cupcake
2. Feeling Smitten
3. Oh So Sweet Treats
4. Cake Spy

The Winner is…

Lanette aka soSensational!!!!

Winning Comment:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/soSensational
Blog: http://sosensational.blogspot.com/

Congratulations!!!

To Claim Your Prize:
Email me at betsy@javacupcake.com
Please include:
Name
Mailing Address

Your goodies will arrive to you by the end of the month!!!
Thank you!

Thank you to EVERYONE who participated in this giveaway. It was a lot of fun!!! Collaborating with these three women has been such a privilege!

]]> http://javacupcake.com/2009/05/the-winner-is/feed/ 4 http://javacupcake.com/2009/03/attention-button-error/ http://javacupcake.com/2009/03/attention-button-error/#comments Sun, 01 Mar 2009 16:14:00 +0000 JavaCupcake http://javacupcake.com/2009/03/attention-button-error/ Yesterday it came to my attention that the link for my button was not working. After a little investigation I found the problem.

Go to this part of the code:

a href=”http//www.javacupcake.com”

You’ll notice there is a : missing after the http… please add that to your code so that the button works!!

Thank you so much for your continued love and support!!! It’s so greatly appreciated!!

I’ll post pictures and maybe even video of the process later this weekend!!!