Karen Tack - Whats New, Cupcake?: Ingeniously Simple Designs for Every Occasion

WHAT'S NEW, CUPCAKE?

WHAT'S NEW, CUPCAKE?

Karen Tack and Alan Richardson

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALAN RICHARDSONRECIPES AND FOOD STYLING BY KAREN TACK

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT
Boston New York 2010

To my mom and dad, who believe that
every meal should end with desserteven breakfast.
K.T.

In memory of my mom, who never cooked
a meal she didn't likeand she was right.
A.R.

Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tack, Karen.
What's new, cupcake? : ingeniously simple
designs for every occasion / Karen Tack and
Alan Richardson ; text and photographs by
Alan Richardson ; recipes and food styling
by Karen Tack.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-547-24181-4
1. Cupcakes. 2. Cake decorating.
I. Richardson, Alan, date. II. Title.
TX771.T322 2010
641.8'653dc22
2009050646

So many people helped us make Hello, Cupcake! a success, and so many more have helped us create What's New, Cupcake? We are lucky to have families that are both patient and talented. The Tack family has lived with cupcakes up to their eyeballs for countless months. Chris Tack supports us, cheers us on, and advises us on every project, every step of the way. Erik and Liam Tack mostly assist by ignoring our insanity but also chime in with the necessary "Awesome!" when we get it right. We rely on Larry Frascella as our trusted barometer, always letting us know when our cupcakes are too weird or when our words don't make sense. Thanks to all of you for everythingwe love you.

Our support team at our publishing house has been amazing. We have an insightful editor, Rux Martin, who keeps us on our toes at all times. We are also grateful to Rux and her partner, Barry Estabrook, for letting Elvis and Presley, their dachshunds, pose for our cupcakes. Our art director, Michaela Sullivan, always makes our work look gorgeous. Our amazing marketing and publicity team, Bridget Marmion, Lori Glazer, Katrina Kruse, Alia Habib, and Joanna Pinsker, has brought us to heights we never expected. Ryan Kelly, Ron Hussey, Teresa Elsey, Jacinta Monniere, Valerie Cimino, Susan Dickinson, Gail Cohen, Lisa Diercks, and so many others, we couldn't do it without you.

Many thanks to our friend Deb Donahue for rescuing us with props whenever we started to run low.

We don't know if Martha Kaplan is the wisest agent on earth or the most diligent nanny, but either way she seems to always be watching out for us. We can't thank you enough, Martha.

We have had terrific support from so many surprising sources. Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb at Today have been on the cupcake train from the beginning. Producer Brian Balthazar was an early believer and did so much to help us. Paula Deen and Brandon Branch have been amazingly generous with their support. Sandy Ploy and Rachel Bussel blog their joy in cupcaking every day, and we are grateful they have taken us along for the ride. Thanks to Nathalie Reid for making it her mission to get everyone in America to take a cupcaking class with us. Dorie Greenspan, Carol Prager, Maria McBride, Mark Bittman, Susan Westmoreland, Linda Fears, Karmen Lizzul, Jane Chestnut, Jackie Plant, Sally Lee, Babs Chernetz, Karen Cicero, Marisol Vera, Catherine Cassidy, Ardith Cope, Sarah Thompson, Stephanie Saible, Chris Koury, Karen Tanaka, and so many more friends in our publishing family have offered their support and continue to help us every day. We appreciate everything you've done.

And to all the wonderful readers, eaters, and new friends who have welcomed our cupcakes into their homes, hearts, and yes, stomachs, all we can say is thank you. Every time we hear your cupcake stories, it gives us a thrill. So cheers to you all, and keep on cupcaking.

Introduction 1

April Fool's Play 22

You Say It's Your Birthday? 50

I Thought You Ordered Chocolate Moose 84

Let's Party, Cupcake! 116

The House That Boo Built 152

Hooray for Holly Days 186

Cupcakes, Frostings, and Cookies 218

Sources 226

When we painted "Starry Night" on a canvas of cupcakes using nothing more than tinted frosting and a ziplock bag, they said we were as looney as van Gogh himself. When we used candy and snacks from the grocery store to turn our cupcakes into howling werewolves, bowling pins, penguins, and sharks, they thought we had lost our minds. But when we served spaghetti and meatballs made from chocolate candies and strawberry jamwith a side order of corn on the cob fashioned from jelly beans and taffyeveryone wanted to join in the fun.

Our new cupcake creations are spectacularand even easier than the ones in our first book, Hello, Cupcake! You'll find cupcakes for every occasion, from a take-out pizza that delivers plenty of April Fool's Day laughs to a Formula One race car that will fast-lane the birthday party fun. Surprise a new mom with a shower of cupcake babies, give your sweetheart a dozen long-stemmed cupcake roses, bring the teacher a bright red cupcake apple for the first day of school, scare the trick-or-treaters with creepy caramel cockroach cupcakes, or bake up a festive gingerbread village for the holidaysanything others do with gingerbread, you can do better with gingerbread cupcakes.

If your cooking inclinations lean more toward takeout than rolling out dough, don't worry. We've given you lots of EZ Cupcakes, including beautiful mums for Mother's Day and pies for a bake sale that will make you look like the most talented pastry chef around. We also show you how to doctor store-bought cake mixes with brand-new flavors like chocolate mint and orange spice and provide you with our patented "almost homemade" buttercream frosting in seven new flavors, from espresso to raspberry.