I get so nervous when I have to bake for an event. When my friend Denise asked me to make cupcakes for her wedding rehearsal dinner, I was excited, and then as the day grew closer, I started to worry. That old nag "expectation" was threatening to make me sabotage my own work. Ugh! "Why did I take this on?" I asked myself the night before, forgetting the dozens and dozens of successful cupcakes I have made over the years.
We had done a test batch a few weeks ago, to determine the flavor and decoration. Her fiance's family loves chocolate, whereas hers loves fruit, so we decided on a chocolate cupcake with raspberry frosting. Her colors are grey, purple and white - so I did a silver foil wrapper and dragees (illegal now, but still available at my favorite baking supply store, Sugar & Spice in Daly City).
About a week ago, she decided that since the dinner was going to be a big, filling Italian meal, minis would be better than full-size cupcakes. Minis are something I have only recently started getting into. They are more work in one sense, because there are twice as many to prepare and decorate, but the decorating is much easier - only one dollop of frosting on top of each cake. It's much easier to make them look uniform, which is something I definitely wanted for this project.
The frosting is always challenging for me when using fruit. I used the same method for these as with my strawberry cupcakes - cook some jam and fruit with lemon juice until it melts, and stir this into a classic cream cheese recipe. The problem is, the taste is great but the frosting gets runny, which you don't want when decorating. The solution is to add more powdered sugar, which can make the taste too sweet. It's a delicate balance, but it turned out just right. I added a couple of drops of hot pink food gel to achieve a pretty, natural-looking raspberry color.
I made the cakes the night before, just in case something went wrong. Again, it's a delicate balance between undercooking and overcooking them and I wanted to make sure they were just right. The recipe on the back of the Hershey's Dark Chocolate Cocoa is amazing and has never failed me.
All in all, they turned out great. I was able to deliver about 48 cupcakes for the party of 36 people, and they were thrilled with them. If only I could learn not to worry so much along the way! After all, cupcakes are supposed to be fun, right?
