Karen Tack - Hello, Cupcake!

Meet the Buttinskys

With just a handful of candies , a can of frosting, a ziplock bag, and some cupcake batter, you are on your way to having fun with those pesky Buttinskys next door, planting a garden of spring vegetables so sweet even the kids will eat them, or turning your next pool party into a shark attack. When the mailman tires of your snarling dog, meet him at the end of the drive with a terrier cupcake before he goes postal. If your son brings home a D in biology, send him to school with a platter of insect cupcakes to show hes ready to get down to business. Want to see the inside of your new neighbors house? Send her a bouquet of sunflower cupcakes to break the ice.

Make our cupcakes for a holiday or a special event, and theyll provide the entertainment. Play an April Fools trick on the family with a cupcake TV dinner. At the neighborhood Halloween party, hand out alien cupcakes oozing with neon frosting and sitting in their own spaceships. When you want a little more sophistication, our black and white cupcakes are refined enough to serve with champagne.

All this is easy: honest. Forget the complicated pastry techniques and expensive decorating supplies. You can find almost everything for these projects at your local grocery store, drugstore, or even a gas-station convenience store (which often has some of the most extensive selections of candies). M&Ms work equally well as noses, eyes, or ears. A circus peanut candy transforms into a horses head, or a clowns floppy shoe. For finishing your designs, a ziplock bag makes a great disposable piping bag.

You dont need any baking skills to make these projects either. Weve come up with a simple formula for doctoring a cake mix. No one will suspect you didnt make these cupcakes from scratch, and they have a uniformly firm surface that wont pull apart when you frost them. And as for the frosting, we have yet to find a homemade one that has the versatility of canned. Store-bought frostings take well to tinting, making it simple to create vibrant colors. They were born for microwaving, melting into a consistently smooth texture for dipping.

Weve also provided recipes for the simplest, most delicious homemade cupcakes possible, as well as for some of the best-tasting frostings youll ever find.

So find a project that tickles your fancy, grab a bag or two of candy, and get ready to put your smile into overdrive. Its time to get this party started.

Mix and match the hair, eyes, and mouth and choose an expression to make a favorite face.

• Wax paper
• Sharp scissors
• Small rolling pin or craft dowel
• Rubber spatula
• Wooden skewers (several different lengths)
• Round toothpicks (not flat)
• Tape measure or ruler
• Tweezers (straight and offset)
• Small brushes
• Offset spatula (available at baking supply stores)
• Scotch tape
• Ziplock freezer bags (1 quart and 1 pint)

A galaxy of decorations made from sugar or candy can be used for edging a cupcake, coating the surface, or sprinkling on top.

Just pick your favorite color and press these treats into thefrosting.

These colorful candies are easily cut with scissors, a small knife, or a cookie cutter.

Semisoft and pliable, these candies can be molded, rolled, and cut into odd shapes and design elements.

Our favorite tool, the ziplock bag, is great for filling cupcake liners. It makes it simple to measure out the batter and to place it exactly in the center of the liners without spilling or dribbling. Freezer-weight bags work best because they are extra-thick. Use two 1-quart ziplock freezer bags.

Fold the edges back 1 inch and place each bag in a container, such as a 1-quart plastic deli container, to hold it upright and open.

Divide the batter evenly between the bags. Unfold the edges of each bag, press out the excess air, and seal.

Grasp the bag below the zipped edge, pushing the batter down toward one corner. Snip off about inch of the corner.

Put the cut opening in the center of a cupcake liner, squeeze gently, and fill the cup two-thirds full. As the batter approaches that level, stop applying pressure and remove the tip from the cup.

Use a rubber spatula or other flat tool to squeegee the last of the batter down to the cut corner, and continue piping.

Creating a perfectly smooth or nicely swirled top is a cinch. Your aim is to spread the frosting up to but not over the edge of the paper liner and to glue down the crumbs in the process. Then you can make the surface as flat or fancy as you like. With frosting, less is never more.

Make sure your frosting is at room temperature; it will have a better texture and be easier to handle. And always stir the frosting before using it.

Place a generous dollop of frosting in the center of the cupcake. Push it away from you to the edge with a spatula, working your way around the cupcake.
	Holding the center portion of the blade at a slight angle, remove any excess frosting and smooth the top.
At the end of a smooth stroke, keep the blade flat and pull to the side to avoid lifting the frosting into peaks. If the top needs more smoothing, wipe the spatula clean and swipe again.