Hola Everyone!
I'm so excited about this baking project I did today for my husband Brandon's 29th Birthday! Let me just say, He LOVES golf! I was trying to come up with a cool idea for some cupcakes to take to his work tomorrow. His actual birthday isn't until Friday May 25th but we will be on a couple day long trip up to Sedona! My hubby loves Slide Rock Park up there, if y'all have never been, I would definitely recommend going! This will be our 3rd time going and our 1st time since we had our son Carter who is only 6.5 months old. Luckily he loves the water so that will be fun!
Ok, so back to the birthday cupcakes! I actually planned on making a large cupcake and some small ones too. The big cupcake mold I got is pretty cool & I got it on Clearance a couple weeks ago at Bed, Bath & Beyond! I knew as soon as I seen it I would use it to bake a cool cake for Brandon's birthday. So here is my tutorial for the cupcakes I made for Brandon's 29th birthday. :) Enjoy!~
Ingredients/tools for the cake!
Ok, So I know not everyone has a Kitchen Aid, but any kind of mixer will work! Much better than hand mixing. No one wants clumps in their cake. :) For this I used 2 boxes of Betty Crocker Super Moist Yellow cake mix. I used 2 because I had to be sure I had enough for about 18 regular cupcakes and the BIG TOP cupcake pictured above.
*These are the ingrediants I used, I modified the cake a little from the box.
*2 boxes of cake yellow cake mix
*1 cup Vegetable oil
*1 cup water
*1 cup buttermilk
*6 eggs
*Note this box doesn't ask for buttermilk but I have made some homemade cupcakes before and it gives it a yummy moist rich buttery flavor. :) So instead of 2 cups of water I just did equal parts of the buttermilk and water. YUM!
Now for the best part of a cupcake: FROSTING! I got my recipe on Pinterest from Glorious Treats, this is her American Buttercream Frosting recipe. Ever since I found this recipe I have used it constantly anytime I make a cake! It is my ALL-TIME-FAVORITE! Here is what you need:
1 cup (2 sticks) Butter (salted or unsalted)
1/4 teaspoon Salt (if using unsalted butter)
4 cups of powdered Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract (She says get the best, I used Walmart brand)
2-3 tablespoons heavy cream/half & half or milk (I used Kroger Whipping Cream)
*Now, I do her optional version and use cream cheese! :) It's delish! She says to just add a half block of cream cheese in when you are first mixing the butter.
Also, in this situation with the the large & small cupcakes I doubled this frosting recipe! :)
*In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter until smooth.
*Add cream cheese now!
*Add Salt (If needed).
*One cup at a time add in the powdered sugar ( I kept my mixer on a low-medium speed while adding the sugar.)
*Add Vanilla.
*Add 1 tablespoon of heavy whipping cream.
*Add rest of the sugar & keep beating.
*If you need to you can add more heavy whipping cream.
You may need to put in the fridge for a little bit, I usually do for 30-60 minutes before I frost or pipe my cupcakes.
The batter is all ready and poured into its molds! The red is large cupcake mold I bought on clearance at Bed, Bath & Beyond a couple weeks ago for $9.99! :) It's all ready to bake, the oven is pre-heated to 350 degrees. I baked the big cupcake molds for 45 minutes and I baked the cupcakes (filled 2/3 to the top) for 13 minutes.
Once it was all finished I let them cool on a baking rack and mixed up my colors in separate bowls and used piping bags to frost all my cupcakes! I use the gel food coloring, it goes such a long way and you get great color saturation.
The Finished Product! Cute Golf cupcakes! I used brown sugar to sprinkle over the white frosting to give the look of the sand box, the lighter green with the white spot is the main part of a golf course and where the ball is & the dark green is the "green", I used a tooth pick as the pole and cut out some craft paper and made the flag & I put my hubby's favorite number 17 on it. The hole is actually a Cocoa Puff! :)
As for what the cupcakes are sitting on, it is just a piece of cardboard cute and covered with the metallic wrapping paper I got for his birthday gifts. You can also use Foil.
Here is the whole shebang! The big cupcake isn't nearly as pretty as I would have liked it to be... I had to frost it first because otherwise there wouldn't have been room to frost the bottom of it with the other frosted cupcakes there without messing it all up.It all started to melt! haha, I was going as fast as possible. The big cupcake says, "Happy B-Day Brandon!".
Needless to say, he loves it & especially loves the golf cupcakes idea I found on Pinterest... It was only a picture that the lady had found on google somewhere so I wasn't able to click on it and get a tutorial or give credit to anyone for it. So I just did it the best I could to replicate a Golf style cake/cupcakes. :) ENJOY!
Let me know if you have any questions!
Corrie
