Color wheel cupcake recipe from SprinkleBakes cookbook

Here's a recipe for these fun color wheel cupcakes from this new cookbook by blogger Heather Baird of SprinkleBakes. Stay tuned for a contest to win a copy! Reprinted with permission from SprinkleBakes: Dessert Recipes to Inspire Your Inner Artist © 2012 by Heather Baird, Sterling Epicure, an imprint of Sterling Publishing Co. Photographs @2012 by Heather Baird.





COLOR WHEEL CUPCAKES
YIELD: Approximately 20 cupcakes

This exercise will teach you the basics of color mixing. While mixing your own color wheel of cupcakes, use the color wheel as a guide while following the recipe instructions.

CUPCAKES
¼ pound (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
11/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature


SWISS BUTTERCREAM
1 cup sugar
3 egg whites
3/4 pound (3 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 small bottle (1 ounce) red gel food coloring
1 small bottle (1 ounce) blue gel food coloring
1 small bottle (1 ounce) yellow gel food coloring


Make the cupcakes:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 standard cupcake pans with paper cupcake liners.
2. Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.
4. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
5. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk to the sugar mixture alternately in 3 batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and scraping down the bowl between additions.
6. Fill the cupcake liners halfway with the batter. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
7. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Turn onto a rack to cool completely before icing.


Make the Swiss buttercream:

1. Set a medium saucepan one-quarter full of water over medium heat and bring to a simmer.
2. Whisk together the sugar and egg whites in a heatproof mixing bowl.
3. Set the bowl over the simmering water and whisk constantly until the sugar has melted. Cook until the mixture feels hot to the touch.
4. Remove the bowl from the top of the saucepan, wipe the bottom with a towel, and transfer the contents to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.
5. Beat on medium-high speed until the mixture has doubled in size and has cooled, about 10 minutes. The mixer bowl should feel cool to the touch.
6. Switch to the paddle attachment and turn the mixer on medium-low. Add the butter 1 tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition.
7. Add the vanilla and beat again until it is completely incorporated and the icing is fluffy.
8. To mix the colors, in three separate bowls, divide the icing evenly and mix each primary color with the icing: 1 blue, 1 yellow, 1 red. Mixing icing color is different from mixing paint because each food coloring is blended with white frosting and not a singular pigment. White lightens pigment, so add a large amount of food coloring to each frosting bowl. It’s a good idea to dedicate an entire 1-ounce bottle of each primary coloring for this project.
9. After each color is mixed, frost 3 cupcakes with about ½ cup of each color and place them in a triangle on your work surface. Place the yellow at the top, the blue to the bottom left, and the red to the bottom right.
10. In another bowl, mix equal parts (2 or 3 tablespoons each) of yellow and red icing to make orange. Frost a cupcake with the orange icing and place it between the yellow and red cupcakes.
11. In yet another bowl, mix equal parts (2 to 3 tablespoons each) yellow and blue icing to make green. Frost a cupcake with the green icing and place it between the yellow and blue cupcakes.
12. In still another bowl, mix equal parts red and blue (2 to 3 tablespoons each) to make purple (or violet). Frost a cupcake with the purple icing and set it between the red and blue cupcakes. These are your secondary colors. Note: Tertiary colors are created by mixing a primary color with its “offspring.”You may need to mix more secondary colors (orange, green, and purple) to produce tertiary colors.
13. Mix equal parts of red and orange icing to make red-orange icing. Frost a cupcake and place it between the red and orange cupcakes.
14. Continue this process with red and violet to make violet-red; blue and violet to make blue-violet; blue and green to make blue-green; green and yellow to make yellow-green; and yellow and orange to make yellow-orange. Your color wheel is now complete. You may have leftover icing and a few extra cupcakes. Frost the extra cupcakes and enjoy!

Filled cupcake cookbook Bake It in a Cupcake! is coming to a bookstore near you in October

Congratulations to Megan Seling of the fabulous filled cupcake blog Bake It in a Cake for her cookbook deal! Bake It in a Cupcake: 50 Treats with a Surprise Inside is available for pre-order will be out in October from Andrews McMeel. We'll share more information about it as soon as we can, but what's below should be enough to entice you. (I know this cover is different than the one on the publisher's site, which I believe is an older version. This cover is the one on Amazon and, as far as I know, the final version. Plus I think a heart baked inside a cupcake is one of the cutest things ever!)



Here's the publisher's official description:

Bake It in a Cupcake takes the cupcake craze to the next level with 50 recipes for all kinds of sweet and savory treats baked inside cupcakes. These whimsical creations are presented in a bright, colorful format that looks as good as the cupcakes taste. All of Bake It in a Cupcake's creations are mouthwatering and fairly simple to make, even for those without baking experience. The fabulous recipes are accompanied by easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions, with beautiful color photographs. While traditional cupcakes are still wildly popular, Bake It in a Cupcake takes the classic treat beyond complicated decorating techniques. As the saying goes, it's what's on the inside that counts.

The recipes are organized by chapter by what is inside, whether that's another baked good like a mini pie or lemon square, or different kinds of your favorite candy. Recipes include Lemon Bar Vanilla Cupcakes with Fresh Raspberry Frosting, Cherry Pie Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Frosting, Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting, Chocolate-Covered Pretzel Brownie Bites with Salted Caramel Frosting, and Egg-Filled Croissant Cups with Swiss Cheese and Chives. There is something in this cookbook for everyone's taste, kid and adult alike.

Below are some double rainbow cupcakes she recently posted by a reader named Daniela.

Hello, Cupcake! launches iPad and iPhone cupcake decorating app

The wait is over! The Hello, Cupcake! app by bestselling authors Karen Tack and Alan Richardson (Hello, Cupcake!, What's New, Cupcake? and Cupcakes, Cookies and Pie, Oh My!) is here! Download it for the iPad or iPhone using from the Apple store. I saw a prototype when I took a class from Karen and Alan a few weeks ago and it walks you through literally every step of the process. You click on an image and are shown how to decorate the cupcake. Pretty cool! Here's some sample screenshots:

How many potato chips can you fit on top of a cupcake?

I actually can't even tell how many potato chips are on this cupcake! I can tell you it's a chocolate caramel potato chip cupcake "topped with fresh whoop and smoked sea salt" and it's by The Sugar Cube, a food truck in Portland, Oregon that I won't have time to visit this trip but that looks amazing. Via their Facebook page. Find out more at thesugarcubepdx.com and be on the lookout for their cookbook, The Sugar Cube: 50 Deliciously Twisted Treats from the Sweetest Little Food Cart on the Planet, out from Chronicle Books in a few weeks.



Other cupcakes:


Amy Winehouse tribute cupcakes: "Boozy hightop yellow cakes infused w/brandy and orange zest and dipped in sexy bittersweet chocolate ganache for good measure. Garnished w/a complimentary straw and Colombian powdered sugar bump."


Oreo and chocolate cupcakes



Official description:

This covetable cookbook is a greatest-hits collection from Sugar Cube, a tiny pink food cart in Portland, Oregon, that is thronged daily by hungry hordes craving voluptuous sweets intensified with a spike of booze, a lick of sea salt, or a “whoop” of whipped cream. Sugar Cube founder and baker Kir Jensen left the fine-dining pastry track to sell her handmade treats on the street. Recipes for 50 of Kir’s most enticing cupcakes, cookies, tarts, muffins, sips, and candies are made more irresistible (if possible!) by 32 delicious color photographs. Sassy headnotes and illustrations that resemble vintage tattoos liven up this singular boutique baking book.