practice makes perfect??

apparently, on the weekends, i'm going to make cupcakes.  that is what has happened for the last few weekends now.  last weekend there was devil's food with mocha icing, the weekend before that there was winter cupcakes and the weekend BEFORE that......there was valentine's cupcakes.  today, i made two different batches of cupcakes.  why, you might be wondering....am i just trying to make a huge mess for the husband to clean up?  well, yes, that is one benefit....but the main reason two batches:  one batch to try a new recipe, and the second to keep practicing my decorating.  oh, and the third reason (today in particular) is that i just bought new gel paste colors (americolor) that my friend ashley (a fellow baker) recommended.  i also used my new beater blade, which was awesome....it is a paddle attachment with a scraper attached, which works like a charm, so i don't have to scrape down the bowl every few minutes.

the cupcakes i decided on to work on my recipes:  mint filled brownie cupcakes.  this recipe came from martha's cupcake book.  the mint filling may sound hard to accomplish, but really the recipe just called for a york peppermint patty.  the cupcakes are delicious, but i was unhappy with the final product when they came out of the oven...the mint was a little "explody" out of the top of the cupcake.  i just put some powdered sugar on top for good measure, and they looked a little more polished.

the cupcakes i made to practice my decorating:  vanilla cupcakes with white chocolate ganache glaze.  the white chocolate ganache was easy to make...i just followed the regular chocolate ganache glaze recipe, but used white chocolate instead.  i tinted the white chocolate ganache with "warm brown" from my americolor set, which only turned out ok.  i then piped on different designs with regular vanilla buttercream tinted different colors.  i tried a plaid design, which was difficult because it is hard to pipe straight lines, but i was pleased with the result.  i also tried some handwriting, some zig zags and polka dots.  the polka dots turned out kinda crummy, but i'm sure it will taste delicious just the same!  the colors i used?  warm brown, sky blue and navy blue.  i really liked how the colors turned out and the icing doesn't taste like it has a lot of color in it, like it sometimes can with other commercial food colorings.

this was a good way to spend my sunday early to mid afternoon.  i am happy with the results, but i'm still going to keep figuring out new recipes and working on my decorating.  i want things to be perfect.....and while today i feel that the execution today was a B- (the handwriting was actually pretty decent, so i can give myself higher marks there), but if you know me at all, i'm always aiming for an A.