Page 239 - Cupcakes

The Lowdown on Dragées

I adore decorative little gold and silver dragées, and place them on butterfly
and Mardi Gras cupcakes. Yet controversy surrounds them. Dragées are not
for sale or distribution in California, and the Food and Drug Administration
says they are “nonedible” and the jars must read “for decoration only”
because they contain a trace amount of metal (silver). Dragées are sold in
Europe for consumption and used widely for cake and cookie decoration.
They add a real visual impact and come in gold, silver, copper, pearl, pink,

blue, and more colors, but you or the person eating the cupcake should
remove them before eating. (Make sure you remove any dragées before
serving cupcakes to children.) If you do not live in California and are able to
purchase dragées for decoration, two good on-line sources are
www.beryls.com (Beryl’s of Springfield, Virginia) and www.sugarcraft.com
(Sugarcraft of Hamilton, Ohio).

2. Prepare the cupcake batter: Place the cake mix, cream cheese, water, oil,
sugar, eggs, and vanilla and almond extracts in a large mixing bowl. Blend with
an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape
down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to
medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed.

Spoon or scoop ⅓ cup batter into each lined cupcake cup, filling it three quarters
of the way full. (You will get between 22 and 24 cupcakes; remove the empty
liners, if any.) If desired, push pecans deeply into the center of 2 or 3 cupcakes
so they cannot be seen. Place the pans in the oven.

3. Bake the cupcakes until they are golden and 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 for 30 minutes before glazing.

4. Meanwhile, prepare the glaze: Place the confectioners’ sugar and milk in a
small mixing bowl and whisk to combine until smooth.