Belated, I know, but I had to share my pictures of these cute ghost cupcakes I made on Halloween.

This idea came from loyal NGH reader, Janell.  She came across a picture of these cupcakes from Wheatberry Bakery in Pasadena and sent it to me.  I took it as a fun challenge to try.  There are a few things I would do differently next time, but I’m proud of my first attempt.

I started with basic white cupcakes that I made using this White Cake Recipe.  This was my first time using the recipe and I was very pleased.  It is very easy and quick, uses basic ingredients, and tasted better than the box mixes.  It probably took an extra 3-5 minutes over using a box, but actually saves 20 if it cuts out a visit to the grocery store for a cake mix.  Anyway,  now we’re to this point…

Now it’s time to frost the cupcakes because who wants a cupcake without frosting?  You can use the white frosting recipe I posted last week or just buy a can of it since it’s just for taste and not for looks.  Before the frosting sets, place a marshmallow or gumdrop in the middle.  That will hold up the “ghost.”  I experimented with different heights by cutting the marshmallows.

Next is the slightly harder part of rolling out some fondant.  You can buy fondant at craft stores or make it yourself.  I have been advised making it is hard, so I haven’t tried it yet but plan to soon.  Either way, roll out the fondant and use a cookie cutter, pizza cutter, or knife to cut little circles about 6 inches in diameter.  I used a flower cookie cutter to get the scalloped edges.  Make sure to cover it in plastic wrap (or work very quickly) so the fondant doesn’t harden flat on the counter.  Like this…

Now it’s as simple as laying each fondant circle over the marshmallow on the cupcake and, voila, you have cute little ghost cupcakes.  As a finishing touch, I melted a few chocolate chips and piped them on as eyes.  The original picture cut eye holes in the fondant before draping them over — that probably would have been a good idea.  Next time, I would also roll my fondant not quite so thin and slightly larger circles (6 inches or so) but I was trying to use the last little fondant scraps instead of opening a new package.  You know how that goes.

Here’s the whole group!  Enjoy!

(Don’t worry, we’ll get back to the frosting series right away.)

- Clarissa

I’ve had some questions about the frosting I use in my cake decorating exploration.  So, the next few posts will be a little beginner’s guide to frosting.  We start today with the basic recipe for frosting that is taught in Wilton cake decorating classes.  I used this recipe on many cakes including this one…

You will be surprised to hear that with this recipe I actually (for once) stuck completely to the recipe.  It starts with a cup of shortening (I used Crisco from the big can), flavoring, and water.  My favorite flavoring is almond, but that doesn’t go with as many cake flavors so vanilla is probably the most common.  After creaming that, add the sugar and meringue powder and mix until it’s nice and smooth and creamy.  Meringue powder can be found at some grocery stores or at any Michaels or Hobby Lobby.  It just stabilizes the frosting so that it holds up a little better, doesn’t melt as easily, and makes a nice smooth “crust” on the cake frosting.  This recipe makes 3 cups of “stiff” frosting for decorations on a cake.  To make medium frosting, add one teaspoon of water for each cup of stiff frosting.  For covering a cake, you’ll want to make thin frosting by adding another one teaspoon of water for each cup of medium frosting.

Our next post will focus on chocolate frosting.  Then we can expand into some of the basics of frosting the cake.

Here’s the full recipe…

Wilton Buttercream Frosting

• 1 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1 teaspoon flavoring (vanilla, almond, butter)
• 2 tablespoons water (or milk, but then you have to refrigerate)
• 1 lb. pure cane confectioners’ sugar (approx. 4 cups)
• 1 tablespoon meringue powder

Cream shortening, flavoring, and water.  Add dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until all ingredients have been thoroughly mixed together.  Blend an additional minute or so, until creamy.

Additionally, you can add a pinch of salt if desired, but you must dissolve it in the water before adding to the bowl.  You wouldn’t want little grains in the frosting — yuck!

If you have any questions, or have stories/photos of trying the frosting for yourself, please share!  And check back for the chocolate recipe.

- Clarissa

In yesterday’s post, I told about my two-tier cake adventure and gave you the recipe for the bottom chocolate cake tier (even if you don’t want the recipe, go check out the pics because I’m proud ).

The top tier was an almond cake.  This one was very different because it was dense and thus MUCH easier to work with than spongy chocolate.  You’ll see from the ingredient list that the cake is mostly butter, so how can you go wrong?

The recipe instructs to use a “baking dish” and bake for 50 minutes.  I have no idea what they mean by “baking dish” but since I had to make a 6-inch double layer cake, I used two 6-inch pans.  That resulted in quite a thick cake, so I’m sure 8-inch pans would also do well.  Remember to reduce the baking time if splitting into multiple pans — my 6-inch pans required about 35-40 minutes.  One more note on the recipe — the author suggested sprinkling the top with powdered sugar to serve.  I had to frost it for class, but obviously you have options.

Most of the recipes I found for almond cake required almond paste.  Since I had neither the time nor energy to buy or make almond paste, I found this recipe that used almond extract instead.  In the process of searching, I found a recipe for homemade almond paste that looks excellent.  I have long been a HUGE fan of almond paste, so I can’t wait to try that recipe.  In the meantime, here’s a nice almond cake recipe with simple household ingredients…

Swedish Almond Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Beat sugar, egg, almond extract and milk together. Add flour and baking powder. Then add butter. Spray baking dish with Pam or any non-stick coating. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until cake tests done with toothpick. Cool for 20 minutes, then remove from pan.

Source: Cooks.com

Don’t worry if you missed the chocolate cake, you can still get it here.

- Clarissa

This weekend was my last Wilton cake class of Course III (we’ll take a little flashback into my cake classes later, but right now we’re talking about good cake recipes).  The lesson was to create a two-tiered cake, and I used a light chocolate frosting (light in color, certainly not in fat) with fondant roses.  The bottom layer was chocolate cake and the top layer was almond cake.  Due to our busy week and my cold, it’s not the best looking one I’ve done, however, the recipes for the actual cakes were the best I’ve made yet.  They’re nothing extraordinarily special –  just good plain cake, so I thought I would share.

But first, here’s a picture of the finished work.

And a close-up of the flowers

First, the chocolate cake (find the almond cake recipe here).  This cake was super easy to make because it just required one bowl and simple ingredients.  After it was baked, however, was a completely different story because it was so moist and sticky that it was a pain to try to move and frost.  As soon as we cut into it, though, the extra pain was totally worth it.  Well, that’s enough talk, you just want the recipe…

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. 10 to 12 servings.

Source: Hershey’s Kitchens

- Clarissa