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Cup Cakes and the Frosting There Of


Holly Moore

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Part of the cupcake resurgence seems to be many decorators departing from cupcake frosting tradition and piping a swirl of frosting onto the center of the cupcake, leaving a quarter inch of its perimeter unfrosted. This bothers me as it lacks precision and leads to an inconsistent frosting to cake consumption ratio.

Is there a benefit gained by departing from the logical spreading of the frosting over the entire top surface of the cupcake? Does it speed production or make for less messy cupcake boxing?

Buttercream icing is a wonderful thing. In a proper cupcake it should be spread edge to edge in all its silken glory.

Holly Moore

"I eat, therefore I am."

HollyEats.Com

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I fix the icing to cake ratio problem by breaking the lower half of the cup cake off (the stem, as it were) and tossing it for birds and or dogs to enjoy.

This leaves an appropriate cake to icing ratio that can be easily bitten through. Another trick is to flip the cupcake over so that it is the icing your tongue perceives first and foremost.

Edited by Lindacakes (log)

I like to bake nice things. And then I eat them. Then I can bake some more.

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Frosting control is the question.

I want to glaze cupcakes, using a stencil which I will remove to let the cupcake show thru.

How do I keep the glaze from making an unholy mess of the cupcake paper/sides?

Are there any cute little cupcake-collar tricks?

"You dont know everything in the world! You just know how to read!" -an ah-hah! moment for 6-yr old Miss O.

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As a consumer, I consider it a cheat. A cupcake is an excuse to eat a pile of frosting. If you're going to cheat on the frosting, the cake had better make up for it, and it usually doesn't.

"I think it's a matter of principle that one should always try to avoid eating one's friends."--Doctor Dolittle

blog: The Institute for Impure Science

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As a consumer, I consider it a cheat. A cupcake is an excuse to eat a pile of frosting. If you're going to cheat on the frosting, the cake had better make up for it, and it usually doesn't.

Word, from another cupcake consumer. Don't be stingy with the frosting, baby. :angry:

Slather it to excess and you will be fondly remembered in last wills and testaments. :laugh:

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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I just ate a cupcake at a cupcake shop (Trophy Cupcakes), and they didn't spread their icing from edge to edge, and from a production and neatness standpoint I can see why.

Production-wise, it's very fast to just pipe the icing on top of the cupcake in a swirl pattern rather than slop it on with a spatula. The edge is left bare so that fingerprints from the salespeople (although they wear gloves) don't mar the look of the cupcake, especially when they load dozens in boxes.

From a customer standpoint, the icing is still very generous.....it's just piled high rather than spread out. I was very happy with my cupcake.

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From a customer standpoint, the icing is still very generous.....it's just piled high rather than spread out. I was very happy with my cupcake.

Its better to spread it all over beacuse then you don't have a tall peak thats to big to put your mouth around, and all parts of the cupcake are covered on the top. It always annoys me when the cupcake is to big to fit in your mouth.

Noncooks think it's silly to invest two hours' work in two minutes' enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet- Julia Child.
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Its better to spread it all over beacuse then you don't have a tall peak thats to big to put your mouth around, and all parts of the cupcake are covered on the top. It always annoys me when the cupcake is to big to fit in your mouth.

Can you fit a regular-sized cupcake in your mouth, even without icing? If you can, you must have a pretty large bite.

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