White Cupcakes with Pastel Buttercream Peaks

This recipe is fairly simple to make and the ingredients are as basic as they can come ( Every baker has them on-hand in their pantry). SShhh The secret to the 'white' cupcake is Martha only uses egg whites, (instead of the whole egg).

The best part of these cupcakes were the way they were decorated! The peaks turned out great! I would suggest filling the piping bag with frosting and let it cool in the fridge for a few minutes before you start piping so the peaks come out and stay strong.

I have to say these weren't my favorite cupcakes, but I will definitely be decorating cupcakes like this again! Simple yet impressive...An amateur baker's dream!!!

Sayks Rating:

Difficulty: *

Taste: *

Appearance: *****

Occasions: Since the peaks remind me of fireworks, anything worth celebrating!

Who ate them: I was testing these out for a wedding, so I passed them out to my neighbours!

Mocha Cupcakes

I'm not going to follow any particular order when choosing which cupcake I want to try...If I'm in the mood to make it, or if I have an occasion to make a certain cupcake, that's what I'll make!

So the first cupcake I tried from "Martha Stewart's Cupcakes" was the Mocha Cupcake. It seemed pretty basic and I already had most of the ingredients. Everything went pretty smoothly until I got to making the icing. I made sure I had all the ingredients before I started, but what I didn't do was read HOW to make it. Martha suggests making a coffee-flavoured seven minute frosting, which she frosts in peaks and tops with a coffee bean. It makes for a really simple yet dramatic effect that I was really looking forward to trying and showing off... The problem was I didn't read the recipe to see what TOOLS I needed...and for seven minute frosting, you need a candy thermometer, which I don't have :(

Luckily, Martha had my back, as she offers alternatives to the icing in this recipe. So my cupcakes were saved by Martha's coffee variation of Swiss meringue buttercream! I didn't have enough unsalted butter, so I substituted for Crisco, and it worked out just fine! I topped it off with a mocha flavoured coffee bean and Voila!

Sayks Rating:

Difficulty: *** (because you have to make so much espresso)

Taste: ****

Appearance: ****

Occasions: morning office meetings, brunch, coffee-tea parties.

Suggestions: make the icing ahead of time so the coffee flavour has time to develop.

Who ate them: My husband brought them to the office where they were devoured in 30 minutes (at 9 am)!