My Niece's Birthday Party Part 1- The Cupcakes!

On August sixth, my cute little niece Jillian turned the big two. Of course my sister, knowing what a little baker I am, set me to the task of making the cupcakes and the party favors. It was a luau theme so I got to have a little fun with the decorations. I'm going to begin with the cupcakes.

I made 48 cupcakes. They were tie dyed using three shades a piece and I did four different color combinations. I then iced them with homemade buttercream icing and decorated them with sprinkles, flamingo picks and parasols.

 

 

Jillian enjoying a cupcake with icing in her favorite color-- Pink!

Tie dying cupcakes are super easy but look spectacular. It all comes down to the color combination; mix warm tones with cool tones so they pop.

The turquoise really stands out next to the orange and yellow.

Here's the ingredients you'll need to make your cupcakes:

-Your favorite recipe for a white cake. Due to time constraints, I just used a french vanilla mix.
-Food coloring gels. I use Wilton icing gels.
-A bowl for each color.
-A buttload of toothpicks.
-Icing
-Decorations

Make up your cake mix and divide amongst the bowls. To color the batter, take a clean toothpick and dip it in your chosen gel. Drag it through the batter, then dispose. Never reuse a toothpick but instead use a new, clean pick if you need to deepen the color.

To tie dye, put one spoonful of colored batter at a time, until cup is 2/3 full. Take a toothpick and drag through cupcake to create a marble effect.

First color combo: Pink, yellow and orange

This was not my favorite combo, but it actually baked up very pretty. Like I mentioned above, having one cooler shade would have helped.






Second color combo: Pink, purple and turquoise

Third color combo: Pink, green and orange

Fourth color combo: Yellow, turquoise and orange (or the Scooby-doo mix :D)

Bake cupcakes according to the recipe's instructions. When done, your cupcakes should look something like this:

Let cool on a wire rack. Meanwhile, make your frosting.

Ingredients
2 sticks butter, room temperature
2 cups Crisco shortening
1 teaspoon butter flavoring
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 lbs powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon meringue powder

 Place the butter, Crisco and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Beat until incorporated (about 5  minutes).

Add your butter flavoring, almond and vanilla extracts. Mix together well. Gradually add about a pound of powdered sugar and the meringue powder and mix. Next, gradually add a 1/2 cup of powdered sugar at a time until the icing has reached the consistency you need. For a hot summer day, I used the full two pounds and it worked well, though we tried to only keep them outside long enough to let the kids get some.

If dying the frosting different colors, divide into bowls and dye using the same method as with the batter. If you find that the icing is a bit to thick, add a little milk to thin it out. Using Wilton's 1M decorating tip, fill an icing bag 3/4 full. To create a pretty swirl, start at the outer edge and swirl inward. Pipe another, smaller swirl on top of that. Decorate cupcakes as desired. This makes enough icing for 36 cupcakes.

 

Gels I used:
Wilton Teal
Wilton Rose
Wilton Lemon Yellow
Wilton Violet
Wilton Leaf Green

Wilton Orange

 How cute is the inside of that cupcake? I hope you have fun making many color combinations of your own!

Good luck!

Rosie