I had no idea that I was in the market for a chocolate frosting recipe, but apparently, I was. I checked out Martha Stewart's 'Cupcakes' cookbook from the library the other day, and almost immediately, I looked for a chocolate frosting recipe. And of course she had one, this being Martha Stewart and all.
I'm going to a Farewell BBQ tonight, and so I made yellow cupcakes to go with my chocolate frosting. The frosting is perfect. It's super chocolate-y and fudgy, but not at all heavy.
I'm going to a Farewell BBQ tonight, and so I made yellow cupcakes to go with my chocolate frosting. The frosting is perfect. It's super chocolate-y and fudgy, but not at all heavy.
I hadn't even finished frosting the cupcakes when I decided to taste test one. It was wonderful, and I'm a little sad that I have to share. Even though I'm in love with Martha's chocolate frosting recipe, I don't think I'll be buying her cookbook. About half of it was recipes, but they weren't particularly new or innovative. For example, as much as I love pumpkin cupcakes, I probably don't need another take on them. The remaining half of the cookbook was "recipes" for decorating your cupcakes. Stuff like how to make your cupcakes look like a yule log, or farm animals, or sea creatures, and so on.
This is going to sound hypocritical, given that I took a cake decorating class and that I have been known to enjoy the Food Network's 'Ace of Cakes' show, but I will never understand or embrace this movement to make baked goods look like, well, not baked goods. You just don't see this with other foods. I mean, when's the last time you heard of someone making a lasagna look like a car? Or someone using chicken to sculpt Santa Claus? I think you catch my drift here.
The other day at the library, I came across Bakerella's new cookbook. Bakerella makes cake pops that don't look like cake pops. In the spirit of the Hello Cupcake cookbooks, Bakerella will teach you how to make cake pops look like hamburgers or teddy bears. Out of curiosity, I looked at the recipe for said cake pops, and *gasp* it calls for a boxed cake mix. The folks over at Hello Cupcake also advocate boxed cake mixes.
And this, I believe, is my problem with this crazy, over the top cake decorating: boxed cake mixes. Have we become so accustomed to eating shitty food that we'll sacrifice taste for a cupcake that doesn't look like one? Herein lies the paradox: there are people that won't go to the trouble with baking a cake from scratch, yet they will spend hours on end decorating that cake (enough people at least to warrant such a market). I understand that cake mixes are convenient, fast, and easy, but what I don't understand is if people are going to spend all this time decorating a cake, why not just make one from scratch instead and skip the extravagant decorating?
The cake pops look cool, but I bet they taste like crap. There is no substitute for homemade baked goods, and if you don't believe me, come on over to my place and I'll bake you a cake. From scratch.
This is going to sound hypocritical, given that I took a cake decorating class and that I have been known to enjoy the Food Network's 'Ace of Cakes' show, but I will never understand or embrace this movement to make baked goods look like, well, not baked goods. You just don't see this with other foods. I mean, when's the last time you heard of someone making a lasagna look like a car? Or someone using chicken to sculpt Santa Claus? I think you catch my drift here.
The other day at the library, I came across Bakerella's new cookbook. Bakerella makes cake pops that don't look like cake pops. In the spirit of the Hello Cupcake cookbooks, Bakerella will teach you how to make cake pops look like hamburgers or teddy bears. Out of curiosity, I looked at the recipe for said cake pops, and *gasp* it calls for a boxed cake mix. The folks over at Hello Cupcake also advocate boxed cake mixes.
And this, I believe, is my problem with this crazy, over the top cake decorating: boxed cake mixes. Have we become so accustomed to eating shitty food that we'll sacrifice taste for a cupcake that doesn't look like one? Herein lies the paradox: there are people that won't go to the trouble with baking a cake from scratch, yet they will spend hours on end decorating that cake (enough people at least to warrant such a market). I understand that cake mixes are convenient, fast, and easy, but what I don't understand is if people are going to spend all this time decorating a cake, why not just make one from scratch instead and skip the extravagant decorating?
The cake pops look cool, but I bet they taste like crap. There is no substitute for homemade baked goods, and if you don't believe me, come on over to my place and I'll bake you a cake. From scratch.
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