Anderson Lisa Turner - Cupcake cakes

Using cupcakes is an easy and fun way to create cakes in all shapes and sizes! Cupcakes are like building blocks that you can put together in lots of different ways, meaning you can make all kinds of shaped cakes without having to use special pans. Plus, cupcakes are easy to serve and fun to eat! Before you get started making these great cakes for your friends, your family, and yourself, read the following tips to make sure your cakes are a success.

You can use any recipe or any flavor of cake mix to make the cupcakes. A cake mix will make 24 cupcakes or 48 mini cupcakes. If youre making cupcakes from scratch, check the recipe for the number of cupcakes or mini cupcakes it makes. Most of the cakes in this book use fewer than 24 regular size or 48 mini cupcakes, but some of the larger cakes use more. Make sure to check the recipe in this book to see if you will need more batter than one cake mix or recipe will make.

For mini cupcakes, youll just need to buy a mini muffin tin, which you can get anywhere kitchen supplies are sold. Mini cupcakes will only need to bake about 10 minutes in the oven.

When baking cupcakes, always use paper liners. That way you dont have to grease the pans, and the cupcakes will come out easily.

To decorate the cupcakes in this book, you can use either canned store-bought frosting or homemade buttercream frosting, which is a bit stiffer than canned frosting. When using a decorating bag and tip, youll need a stiffer frosting.

In a large bowl, beat together butter and vanilla with an electric mixer.

Add powdered sugar to butter mixture, one cup at a time, alternating with one tablespoon milk. Beat until smooth.

In a large bowl, beat together butter and vanilla with an electric mixer.

Whisk together powdered sugar and cocoa. Add dry mixture to butter mixture, one cup at a time, alternating with one tablespoon milk. Beat until smooth.

Decorating cakes is a lot more fun with colorful frosting! For pale or pastel colors, you can use liquid food coloring from the grocery store. But for deeper, brighter colors, youll need to buy gel food coloring at a cake decorating or craft store. Gel food coloring comes in lots of colors and is very concentrated, so you dont have to use much to get a bright color.

Use a craft stick or toothpick to add gel food coloring to frosting. Add just a little bit at a time until you get the color you want.

Many of the recipes in this book call for black frosting. If only a little bit is needed, the ingredients list will call for a tube of black gel frosting. You can buy black gel frosting at grocery stores. If the recipe needs a lot of black frosting, the best way to make it is to start with chocolate frosting and add black gel food coloring. If you do that youll need to use a lot less black gel food coloring than if you were starting with vanilla frosting.

For most of the recipes in this book, youll need to use frosting to draw lines or shapes on the cakes. You can use a decorating bag and a round tip, which you can purchase at some grocery stores or anywhere cake decorating supplies are sold. If you dont have a decorating bag, you can simply spoon the frosting into a ziplock bag and snip off a corner with scissors. For some of the recipes, though, youll need a special decorating tip such as a star or flower. For those recipes, you will need a decorating bag.

Candy is a fun and colorful way to add designs and details to your cakes. If you have an idea for a different color or shape of candy than the book calls for, go for it! Use your imagination, be creative, and most of all, have fun!

Cute Caterpillar

11 cupcakes

Green frosting

Yellow Mike and Ike candies

Yellow frosting

Purple Wild Berry Skittles

White frosting

Purple Spree candies

Yellow Dum-Dums

Frost the cupcakes with green frosting. Arrange the cupcakes in a caterpillar shape. Stick yellow Mike and Ike candies into the bottom of the cupcakes for the feet.

Place the yellow frosting in a decorating bag with a round tip or a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off. Draw a circle on each of the cupcakes, except for the head. Place a purple Skittle in the center of each yellow circle.

Place the white frosting in a decorating bag with a round tip or a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off. Draw eyes on the caterpillars face. Place a purple Spree candy on each white circle and use more white frosting to make pupils. Draw a smile. Stick yellow Dum-Dums into the head for antennae.

Ice Cream Cone

18 mini cupcakes

Chocolate frosting

Pink frosting

Red frosting

Good & Fruity candy

Chocolate chunks

Sour straws

Frost 10 cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Frost 7 cupcakes with pink frosting. Frost the remaining cupcake with red frosting.

Arrange the chocolate-frosted cupcakes in an ice cream cone shape by making a row of 4 cupcakes, then a row of 3, then a row of 2, then 1. Make the scoop of ice cream by placing a row of 4 cupcakes with pink frosting above the top of the cone. Place a row of 3 cupcakes with pink frosting above that. Place the cupcake with the red frosting at the top.

Place chocolate frosting in a decorators bag with a round tip or a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off. Outline the cone shapes with frosting, then pipe 3 diagonal lines across the cones in each direction.

Sprinkle Good & Fruity candies on the pink ice cream cone. Place a piece of green sour straw in the red cupcake for the cherry stem.