Putting the “Cup” Back in Cupcakes

Mary Anne here. Mariel recently took her maiden voyage into the wild and woolly world of catering and I have to say, it was a total blast having her as my partner in crime. A second pair of hands in the kitchen is never an unwelcome guest. On request, we prepared some of our specialties including Fig and Olive Tapenade, Crab Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms and Pulled Pork Sliders, as well as a few portable desserts like Mariel’s gorgeous Lemon Cupcakes with Raspberry Mint Glaze and my new Devil’s Food Cupcakes with Fresh Glazed Berries, created for Patch.com.

On the afternoon of the main event, we were cranking along on our to-do list, serene and confident as we wound down to the final dessert prep. All of the cupcakes popped out of the oven perfectly crowned, aromatic, and begging for their respective trimmings. I’m supposed to be the expert in the berry glazing department, but I guess I was in the mood to cut a corner, so I said to Mariel, “It’s such a pain to brush the tops of each little berry. Let’s just plop them directly into the melted jelly and they’ll be uniformly gorgeous and glistening.” Ha!! They glistened, all right.

The berries were so gloopy and slick that they started slip-sliding-away on the berry-stained icing. It looked like Freddy Kruger went on a baking spree. We were in absolute hysterics – mostly because we had a dozen “extra” cuppies on hand to re-frost, so it wasn’t a day-changing disaster. After collecting ourselves and addressing the real priority – getting our client’s cupcakes properly dressed – Mariel got to work preparing a new batch of glaze, while I tried to resurrect what I could of our hopeless, gloppy tops (for our own consumption anyway). After re-mixing the now-pink frosting and mashing the salvaged berries into a makeshift compote, we got down to decorating, brimming with pride at our new…

….Boob-cakes! While our refurbished cuppies appeared almost Strawberry Shortcake-like at first blush, after a second look, it was clear we had created sugary sugar-cans, complete with aureoles and everything. Oh well. It was nearly Valentine’s Day, our hearts were in the right place, even if our minds were in the gutter. We’ve decided that these glorious cupcakes are dedicated to our beloved Feast on the Cheap’s second birthday. A very perky birthday to us indeed!

Incidentally, these demure “snow berry” cupcakes are what we served our unsuspecting catering client. We didn’t dare present her with such hard-core confections… (click the image for the recipe).

Tagged as: Afternoon Parties, Baking, basics, bridal party, dessert, family, kid-friendly