Happy Monday! In the US this is Martin Luther King Jr. Day so it's a holiday. So I'm a day late with the blog...not due to the holiday but due to all the client meetings I had this weekend out of town. This is the time of year that Cakers begin to book for the rest of their year. Some get booked the previous year but, for me anyways, January is when I book up. So I had meetings for 2 baby showers, 2 birthday parties, 1 Oscar party and a wedding this weekend and now I can NOT wait to get started on all of the cakes! 


The cupcakes featured this week are edible demos for the wedding clients I met with for their wedding later this year. They are doing a combination of a wedding cake along with cupcakes for their reception. So I made up a sample of what they could have for their day. They are filled Mexican Hot Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream swirled on top and decorated with a fondant medallion with a monogram in royal icing. They were filled with chocolate brownie buttercream. 


So that's the "secret" today. How to fill your cupcakes easily for a wonderful hidden treat. Now, cake decorating books may tell you to use a small round piping tip on your bag filled with whatever flavor icing you want to use, stick that down into the cupcake, squeezing gently as you lift the tip back up out of the cupcake. This works by compressing the cupcake around the filling to make way for the icing. I'm not a big fan of the compression. I like light and airy cupcakes and the compression removes that airy part and it's hard to tell just how much filling you have injected into the center. So what I do, instead, is to use a small cookie round cookie cutter. The one I have comes from a set of graduating circles that grow from about 1 inch to 5 inches. So I use the smallest of the rounds. I press that into the center of the cupcake and then remove a little cake "plug" (wonderful for snacking!LOL!) and then, using a piping bag with no coupler or tip, just fill in the hole until it's level with the top of the cupcake. Then all you have to do is pipe whatever frosting you would normally use on top of your cupcakes to hide the secret filling. These are always a hit. In the case of this wedding we are matching the fillings of the cupcakes with the fillings of the cake tiers so that they match. 


This upcoming week brings another dessert tray! Can't wait to share this idea with all of you so you can use it for Valentines Day (Yup, that means the centerpiece is chocolate! YUM!)

Cat