Page 277 - Cupcakes

3. Bake the cupcakes until they spring back when lightly pressed with your

finger, 16 to 20 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire
racks to cool for 5 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edges of the cupcake
liners, lift the cupcakes up from the bottoms of the cups using the end of the
knife, and pick them out of the cups carefully with your fingertips. Place them
on a wire rack to cool completely, 30 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, prepare the Buttercream Frosting. Place ¼ cup of the frosting in a

plastic sandwich bag and set aside. Add the yellow and red food coloring to the
remaining frosting. Blend well so the frosting is evenly orange. Place a heaping
tablespoon of frosting on each cupcake and swirl to spread it out with a short
metal spatula or a spoon, taking care to cover the tops completely.

the CupcakeDoctor says...

Here’s something to remember when you’re making orange-colored
frosting: Use drops of yellow and red food coloring in a 3 to 1 ratio, adding
for example, 6 drops yellow and 2 drops red.

Spooky Graveyard Cupcakes

Bake any cupcake you like and frost with a stiff chocolate frosting. With a
pastry bag fitted with a small round tip, pipe the letters “RIP” onto
miniature Mint Milano cookies with orange decorating frosting (see the
facing page, step 4). Stand a cookie up in each cupcake to resemble a
headstone. Arrange the cupcakes on a platter decorated with Chocolate
Spiders and an imitation spiderweb, found at party stores (or pipe one using
brown decorating gel).

5. Garnish the cupcakes: Cut off a small piece from one of the bottom corners of
the plastic bag holding the frosting. Pipe 2 eyes on each of the Chocolate
Spiders. Place a small round decorating candy in the center of each eye, if
desired. Place a spider on top of each cupcake. There will be 6 extra spiders for
additional platter garnish or simply to enjoy. If you wish, pipe a web on the
platter using brown decorating gel. The cupcakes are ready to serve.