Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts

If You Give A Girl A Cupcake...


She is going to want to frost it...

And not just any frosting will do.  She is going to want pretty frosting.



After I posted this recipe I got some questions on the technique used for getting striped coloring in the frosting.  It is a bit time consuming and messy, but the results are oh so pretty! 

I use a Wilton #22 star tip on a frosting bag.




Once my bag is ready, I choose the color I want to use, I use only the gel coloring for this.  I get a cocktail straw, dip it in the coloring and make several stripes of color in my empty bag.


I then fill the bag with frosting.



And pipe it on the cupcakes starting on the outer edge and spiraling in toward the middle. 



And that is it!  Now you have lovely frosted cupcakes!



The really messy part comes when you need to put more color and more frosting into your already messy bag.  I do not have pictures of that part, but generally I have color and frosting pretty much everywhere!

For these cupcakes I used a basic Buttercream Frosting recipe instead of the cream cheese peppermint frosting I posted here.

If this little tutorial did not answer your questions just leave a comment and I will try to get back to you!


Making my Papa Proud...

My Papa makes cheese for a living.  He makes a number of different kinds, but his specialty is fresh mozzarella.  He sells it at Whole Foods, Central Market, and at a couple of markets in the Austin, TX area.  My family started making cheese after I was married so it is not something I learned to do until...

A few weeks ago we helped Douglas buy Marabelle.  Marabelle is a dairy goat.  She faithfully produces 3-4 quarts of milk a day 7 days a week.  Now, we are a family of 7 and we can use a lot of milk, but almost a gallon a day is more than we can consume.  So...

I started making all of our yogurt.  After several failed attempts and the purchase of a yogurt maker to help me out I finally got really good, creamy, thick yogurt!  But even with making about a quart of yogurt a day I still have 2 full gallons of milk in my fridge today.  Time to try mozzarella again!

The curds resting...

I've made Chevre cheese with great success.  It was truly wonderful!  But my mozzarella has been marginally successful at best.   I'm determined to master the art and make my Papa proud!  Even Papa had to learn, I guess.



And resting at 108 degrees...
So far it is looking promising. Currently I'm holding the curds at 108 degrees for 35 minutes. I'll let you know, but I really think today is my day to make wonderful cheese!