A Bridal Shower Brings May Flowers

Aren’t these cupcakes so pretty? Pretty food always taste better!! This Sunday was my sister’s bridal shower and I wanted to make some cute cupcakes. To decorate them I was inspired by Alice from Savory Sweet Life again. She had this online video to show you how to make these pansy-like flowers and I wanted to try it. Go to her site for the tutorial.

Waking up at 8am to make buttercream isn’t the most enjoyable thing to do because I’m totally not a morning person. But once I put the purple colour into the frosting, I was wide awake and was quite excited to try some piping, because it was so pretty!! The first 12 cupcakes were okay looking, but after I got the hang of it and they turned out really nice! Maybe not as good as Alice, but I think I did a pretty good job for the first time. I can’t wait to try to learn other piping skills.

... go on, read more ;)

Here’s the buttercream recipe I used. Well it’s not really an actual recipe, but more of a general guideline. I find that with buttercream, it’s dependent on your taste & the consistency you need.

Buttercream Frosting

Makes enough frosting for 30 mini cupcakes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of unsalted butter (softened)

2 cups + some more of SIFTED powdered sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

2-3 tbsp of milk

Directions:

Cream the butter in an electric mixer for a few minutes on medium speed until creamy and fluffy. Then decrease the speed to low and add the powdered sugar, (low speed you don’t get covered in powdered sugar). Then mix on medium speed then add the vanilla extract and enough milk to make the consistency you need to pipe frosting. If you want a thin consistency add more milk. If you added more milk, add more sugar.

** CAUTION: frosting will be really sweet… try not to eat the whole bowl before you use it =P

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I decorated the cupcake with little purple sugar that I got from bulk barn for really cheap. It gave the cupcakes a little crunch and made the cupcakes even prettier :)

I love, love these pictures! They are so pretty and nice. I took these pictures outside that morning. I love natural sunlight pictures. I should wake up early to bake things from now on… yeah right… haha maybe one day!

Oh and look at this cupcake holder I got it’s so awesome to carry my baked goods. It so cute and compact and I just love it! I got it from Macy's in buffalo [ thanks T ;) love ya ]. It’s so versatile too! I love it so much!

These things make me love baking even more. I should just become a pastry chef. *sighs* I’m in love, haha.

... I know, I know. I'm in Nutrition and Food. I'm supposed to "healthy" right? I should know what's good and bad, blahblahblah. So me + butter = friends... :O are you gasping? Don't hold your breathe, because butter will always be my friend. Yes, sometimes I cringe at the thought of how much butter I put into these goodies I make, but I try not to think too much about it, because... ignorance is bliss? =P But when I do, I want to change the world!!!! I want desserts to be something people can eat without feeling guilty or bad about their selves, I want desserts to be "healthy" and not a fear because it's "bad" or "fattening". Oh, a girl can dream...

So here's my little tidbit on butter. Butter is an animal fat, sorry fellow vegetarians and vegans! Yes butter contain that "bad" fat... saturated fat and some trans fat. These pesky fats just had to be in butter :( ... but it is these fats that help with the textures and flavours in baked goods that make it so tempting and give it the melt in your mouth feeling... Those evil little things! These fat raise your bad cholesterol level (LDL-cholesterol) and increase your risk of health disease, but guess what I just found out? Saturated fat not only raise your bad cholesterol level in your blood, but it also raises the level of your good cholesterol (HDL-cholesterol protects you from heart disease)... how interesting!!! (health canada). So the fat that is good for you is unsaturated fats, which can be found in canola oil and olive oil. Canada Food Guide recommends that you include a small amount (2-3 tbsp) of unsaturated fat in your diet everyday whether in your cooking or not.

Live life... A little fat doesn't hurt ;)

Bon Appetit,

Jenny