Is It a Cupcake, Or a Cake? Both!

I love cupcake cakes. They combine the best of both worlds, like the easy single serve-ability from the cupcakes and a large decorating surface like a sheet cake. You can arrange the cupcakes into a super cute shape (like this golf course cupcake cake) or just as a sheet like I did with this Bronco's cake. All you need is a dozen cupcakes (or more, depending on what you want to arrange or how many you're feeding) of your favorite flavor, a batch of buttercream frosting, and some food coloring! Yay!
Find a board and cover it in foil, or go to WalMart and get yourself one of those cake boards. Before decorating, lay out the cupcakes in the design you want. This is the time to move them around, before they're 'glued' down. Once you have the design down, dab some frosting on the bottom of each cupcake liner and use that to 'glue' the cupcake to the board. Slap a generous amount of frosting on top of the cupcakes and start spreading it smooth. Pipe a border with a large star tip and voila! You have a blank slate for a cupcake cake!

No plates necessary!

For this Bronco's birthday cake I did the above, but before piping on the border I airbrushed the surface a lovely Bronco's blue and hand drew on the Bronco's logo. I outlined the horse in black and filled in with the white and orange. After piping on the celebratory well wishes, the border went on, along with some confetti sprinkles, and bingo! a fabulous cake!

I Swear I Only Watch for the Commercials

I was a little disappointed by the match up for the big game this year, so I focused on making something delicious instead. I made a few revisions to the chocolate buttercream used for the frosting, and I think it's the best one yet!

Football Cupcake Cake

You will need:
1 box cake mix, any flavor, and any ingredients called for on the box

Chocolate Buttercream
1/2 C butter
1 stick shortening
3 C powdered sugar
2 t chocolate extract
32 oz melted chocolate chips (2 small bags)
1/4 C milk

Make and bake the cupcakes according to instructions. The size of football that I made used 23 cupcakes. Yay! That means there's an extra one for "quality assurance" testing. While the cupcakes are cooling, mix up the best ever, new and improved chocolate buttercream by creaming together the butter and shortening. Slowly add the powdered sugar. At this point, take out about 1 cup of frosting and put it to the side. You'll need this frosting white for the seams and decorations on the ball. In the larger bowl, pour in the slightly cooled (as in, not straight from the stove top) melted chocolate chips. Mix in the chocolate extract. Start with 1/4 C of milk and add until you reach the desired consistency. Also add milk to the reserved frosting that you put to the side until you reach your desired consistency.

To decorate, arrange the unfrosted cupcakes in the general shape of a football first. This is the time to play and move them around until you're happy with the shape. Once you've achieved this, take a knife or spreader and smoosh a little frosting on the bottom of each cupcake to "glue" it into place. This way the cupcakes won't move around which is great if you're going to need to transport it. Now that the cupcakes aren't going anywhere, pipe a healthy (or unhealthy, if you prefer) amount of the chocolate frosting on top of each cupcake using a large circle tip. The more frosting, the better because it's easier to take away from what's there than to evenly add more on. Once all the cupcakes are piped on, use a knife or spreader, or an offset spatula if you have one, to smooth and level out the frosting. Fill another piping bag (or zip-top baggie) with the reserved white frosting. Pipe a thick band across each end of the football as well as a seam across the middle. Add in any well wishes or wording you would like around the seams.

Voila! A football that everyone would rather eat than throw!

A Good Walk Ruined

"I have a tip that can take five strokes off anyone's golf game:  it's called an eraser."  ~Arnold Palmer

Golf Course Cupcake Cake

For those of us that are lucky enough to have golfers in our lives, we have the perfect (cup)cake for you! The best part of this cupcake cake is that it can be modeled after your favorite golfer's favorite hole, can be used with however many cupcakes you want, and can be made out of cupcakes, or a sheet cake! 
Father's day, birthday, anniversary, Tuesday, Boss's Day, the opportunities to impress with this treat are endless.


For this recipe, I'm going to assume that you already have your cake/cupcakes made and cooled. It's just easier for me that way. So, since you have your favorite flavor of cupcakes ready to go on your counter, do me a favor and grab whatever you're going to serve the cake on (cake display board, platter, etc). Play around with the cupcakes and arrange them in the shape of the particular hole that you want. Now that you have the cupcakes arranged, get together the following:


3 C white buttercream frosting (all amounts will be for 24 cupcakes which should = ~ 1/4 sheet cake)
Green food coloring gel
'Spaghetti' or 'grass' piping tip (it looks somewhat like a thimble) 
Piping tip
One chocolate chip
1/4 C crushed graham crackers (for a sand trap)
Blue food coloring gel (if you want a water hazard)


"Glue" your cupcakes in place on the serving apparatus with a small dot of the white buttercream. If you are going to include a sand trap, first frost those cupcakes with white frosting, then sprinkle the tops with graham crackers. Do this before you frost the rest of the cake! It will save you from having sand all over your grass. 

If you don't want a water hazard tint all but a tablespoon or two of the white buttercream a grassy green color (the reserved white is for the golf balls). If you do want a water hazard, separate about 1/4 of the white frosting to tint blue, color the rest green but still reserve some white for the golf balls. With an angled spatula frost the 'green' with the green buttercream. At this time, if you want a water hazard you should use an angled spatula and put that any darn place you want.


Now that you have the green and the hazards out of the way, start piping in the rough using the grass tip. *Warning* Your hand is probably going to get really sore if there is a lot of grass to pipe. Either recruit someone to tap in when your hand gets tired, or make sure there is room in the fridge where you can keep the cake while you take a break. 


Use the piping tip and white frosting to place the golf balls where you want them (in the sand trap and rough for a 'realistic' look). For the hole, take the chocolate chip and place it pointy end down into the green. 


For a large writing space (for "Happy Birthday" sentiments or "You're the Best Boss Ever, Can I Have a Raise?" adulations) make sure that the green, water hazard, or sand trap is large enough for the message. It is incredibly difficult to write a legible message on the grass, just sayin'. 


As always, happy cupcaking, and make sure to send in pictures when you attempt these recipes!