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10 expert tips for making great cupcakes
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Wow guests this summer with yummy, professional-looking cupcakes.
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By Catherine Dunwoody
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See what happens when two gal pals with matching sweet tooths and savvy business sense cook up a brilliant idea? Best friends (or BFFs) Heather White and Lori Joyce own Vancouver's Cupcakes mini-chain, with two busy bakery boutiques and a third to open this summer. A Canadian success story of the sweetest kind, these ladies love what they do, and it shows.
The pink and brown colour scheme of each Cupcakes shop started with a girly-sweet, nostalgic chocolate cupcake with pink buttercream frosting that has become Cupcakes' iconic treat.
A few years later and the tiered cake stands in the shops' windows and showcases are loaded up with a tempting variety of seasonal flavours and colours. You'll also find retro-inspired cakes for any celebration, including weddings.
The cupcake-making trend
Cupcakes' treats are available in the usual muffin-sizes, but the one-bite minis, for some, are the perfect, heavenly mouthful. Most cookware stores for do-it-yourselfers have caught onto the trend and carry both regular and mini cupcake tins for baking, plus the paper liners to size.
With backyard barbecues and picnics taking up your weekends this summer, how about baking up some cupcakes of your own? Get inspired by Cupcakes' seasonal favourites, like the Red Velvet, a cocoa infused vanilla cake in a surprising shade of bright red, topped with white creamcheese frosting, (Canada Day anyone?). Or, the Creamsicle, which is vanilla cake with orange butter cream frosting, finished with orange sugar crystals. Or go with seasonal fruit and make your own version of their Pearfection (pear buttercream with almond poppyseed cake).
Cupcakes are easy to transport too, just place them snugly in a flat, lidded container, with a bit of 'head room' for the frosting.
Here are 10 tips from the pros at Cupcakes for creating your own tasty cupcakes:
1. Make two different types of cake batter, say vanilla and chocolate. Add a blob of each flavour to each cake liner, mix briefly, bake and voila: marble cake!
2. Use a #12 ice cream scoop (available at cookware stores) to get equal cupcake batter portions into the liners before baking. Then the size and shape of each will be nice and consistent.
3. Make sure to line your cupcake trays with your favourite decorative cupcake liners. There are lots of fun seasonal colours and designs out there.
4. Divide a single batch of vanilla buttercream frosting into four different bowls. Create four different looks with four fun icing colours. Remember, one drop of food colouring goes a long way.
5. For a cupcake surprise, use a knife to cut into the cupcake from the top to create a hole (before you top your cupcake with buttercream). Fill the hole with your favorite filling, such as jam, whipped cream or lemon curd.
6. Another fun idea is to make a cupcake sandwich: cut the top of the cupcake off and fill the cupcake base with ice cream, whipped cream or buttercream and put the top back on. Finish with icing sugar and fresh fruit.
7. Give your cupcakes a professional look by using a pastry bag and tip to pipe pretty swirls of frosting to the top surfaces, rather than using a knife or spatula.
8. For best results, make sure the cupcakes are completely cooled before frosting. In the summer months, store them in a cool place, but not the fridge, as it tends to dry out the cake's moisture.
9. Why not plan ahead? Bake up a batch for later, cool, then wrap individually in plastic and toss in the freezer. When guests pop by, the cupcakes take minutes to thaw, and then cheat by adding some ready-to-serve frosting for a quick dessert.
10. Serve cupcakes instead of a birthday cake. Everyone loves to have their own individual cake, and they always look cute with a single candle too. Bake some vanilla and some chocolate to play it safe and please everyone. Mini-sizes are great for folks who find one-bite satisfaction all they need.
Cupcakes, 3 locations:
3026 Edgemont Boulevard, North Vancouver (Opening Summer 2007)
2887 West Broadway, Vancouver
1116 Denman Street, Vancouver
For all locations, call 604-974-1300.
Check out some gorgeous gourmet cupcakes in Dana McCauley's food blog.
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