Although the buttercream chrysanthemums may look difficult, a steady hand and a bit of practice is all it takes to produce a whole bunch of them. Displayed in a group of matching or mixed colors, the cupcakes would be lovely at a bridal or baby shower.
Author: chefalice
Any bride would blush to behold such fanciful cupcakes on her special day. Bakers, too, will relish making the exquisite meringue “flowers,” which are first piped onto parchment-lined baking sheets, then baked until firm and dry. Their crisp, delicate texture makes them a delight to eat.
Buttercream shells and pearls, often seen on grand-scale wedding cakes, are a fresh way to present a classic motif on a batch of cupcakes. The piped designs are among the easiest to achieve the pearls are merely dots, while the tip does most of the work in creating the shells and the small scale of the cupcakes means that even beginning pipers will find them achievable. Even so, you may want to practice making shells on parchment paper before piping onto the frosted cupcakes; any mistakes piped onto the cupcakes can also be gently scraped away before you try again.
The maple is among the most prized trees in the American Northeast, beloved for its bright fall foliage as well as the syrup made from its sap in the spring. Here the crimson autumn leaves are cast in marzipan and placed atop maple-flavored cupcakes and frosting. Keep these cupcakes in mind for Thanksgiving or a leaf-peeping picnic in the country. Unfrosted cupcakes, still warm from the oven, are great for breakfast.
Gobble, gobble! Gummy candies, marshmallows, and toasted coconut flakes make excellent facial features and feathers for tiny Thanksgiving “turkeys.” Coconut marshmallows are available at specialty stores and online; if you can’t find them, make your own: Coat marshmallows with buttercream and then dip them in ground, toasted coconut.
This is a breakfast cake, a lunch cake, a 3 p.m. cake, and a 3 a.m. cake. But where it really excels is after dinner, toasted and smothered in melting vanilla ice cream (the flavor that pairs best with all those chai spices).
We wanted to get the fresh, tangy flavor of ranch dressing into a coating for fried chicken. But the herbs that give ranch its hallmark flavor quickly lost their taste in hot oil. We got around this problem by swapping in thinner boneless chicken thighs for the usual bone-in chicken pieces; the thighs needed much less time to cook through, so the herbs didn’t spend as much time in the oil. We incorporated the herbs chives, cilantro, and dill in three places: in the buttermilk mixture and the flour coating for the chicken, as well as in a creamy dipping…
Making fried chicken at home can be a messy, labor-intensive ordeal that rarely yields the satisfyingly crunchy crust that makes fried chicken great. Our Dutch oven helped us sidestep many of these common pitfalls. The high sides of the Dutch oven helped contain the mess, as did keeping the pot covered during the first half of the frying time. A covered pot had a couple more advantages as well: It captured escaping steam and made the chicken even more moist, and it helped the oil recover heat quickly once the chicken was added. This more-constant oil temperature was essential for…
Pumpkin spice cupcakes topped with tiny marzipan pumpkins are an unexpected alternative (or addition) to pie for Thanksgiving, but these treats would also be welcome at a Halloween party or any other fall occasion.