Posted by Katie Lane
Is it summer yet?
I know it is still cold and rainy outside, but all I can think about is summer. And when I think about summer, I think about these cupcakes.
This article is going to be a little unorthodox, o.k.? I am not going to give you a detailed recipe or exact instructions.
Instead, I am going to tell you that serving a plate of adorable edible sunflowers will result in the following: smiles, giggles, grins and, eventually, bellyaches after your friends eat three cupcakes loaded with Oreos, frosting and M&Ms.
But these cupcakes are really what baking is all about for me. They are just plain happy.
I do not know about you, but I am feeling the stress of senior year. My brain is whirring with papers, group projects and final exams, not to mention the whole part about finding a job and place to live in six short weeks.
Honestly, I have not even really had time to bake any treats as stress-relief. All I can do is pull up these pictures of sunny little cupcakes and try to visualize myself eating them on a beach in a bikini.
O.K., maybe eating cupcakes in a bikini is a little ironic, but you know what I mean.
I wish I could tell you that simply looking at this photo would make the stress of the final days of Spring 2011 dissipate into a sugary bliss, but it cannot and will not.
It can provide some temporary relief, though (see above: smiles, giggles and grins). You can even make these yourself right in your Scribner kitchen!
Yep, that is right. Look below: I am instructing you to use a cake mix, canned frosting and highly processed cookies and candies. Just go with it.
They are from a fabulous book called "Hello, Cupcake!" by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, which is full of fun, little cupcake creations that you can make with very few tools.
We can do it, guys!
THINK SUMMER!
THINK SUNFLOWERS!
THINK LADYBUGS!
THINK CUPCAKES!
Sun Flower Cupcackes
Ingredients:
Yellow cake box mix and corresponding ingredients
2 cans vanilla frostingww
Food coloring
Oreos (regular and mini)
M&Ms
Black decorating gel
Directions:
Step 1. Whip up your favorite yellow cake box mix. One box should make 24 cupcakes.
Step 2. Combine some white frosting (Betty Crocker?) with a few drops of green food coloring and mix well. Spread on cooled cupcakes.
Step 3. Do the same with some yellow/orange food coloring. Scoop it into a Ziploc bag, press out the excess air and seal. Reinforce the corner of the bag with six overlapping layers of Scotch tape. Pinch the corner flat and cut out a small V-shape to make the leaf tip.
Step 4. Artfully arrange regular Oreos and mini Oreos on your frosted cupcakes. Use the Ziploc bag to pipe petals around each Oreo.
Step 5. Press M&Ms onto flowers and decorate like ladybugs with black decorating gel.
Step 6. Eat in the sun while wearing a bikini.