Cupcake Madness!

So, since I'm getting (a little) better at decorating cakes, I thought I'd shift my focus to the cake flavors. I decided to try out a few different recipes and choose my favorite. I'm actually still not sure which is the best. But in the process, I made a million cupcakes this week. Both of our coworkers were pretty happy about that since we each brought in trays of cupcakes. I can't have things like that around the house!

I also found a very cute idea from a message board on craftster.org about sushi cupcakes. The poster had actually bought bento boxes and that green "grass" plastic that comes in sushi so hers looked very real. I made a more candy version for my sister-in-law who just came home from a year in Japan.

I used a green tea cake recipe which was a hit all around (I also took that to work) and I iced it with a maple ginger icing. The icing tasted great but was a recipe that was a complete fail. It is supposed to start with warm milk & flour and make a paste. Mine made more like clay with flour chunks. so I just kept adding things to make it better. It still had some chunks, but no one (except me!) seemed to notice.

I had another failed icing recipe for peanut butter frosting from all-recipes.com. This is one of my favorite sites to go to for recipes. Usually. Sometimes you get a dud. Well, it was pretty basic, with peanut butter, butter, powdered sugar and a little milk. But mine basically turned into a peanut butter crumble. So, once again, I just kept adding things. Mostly more sugar. Then I decided to add 3 egg whites that were beat stiff. That was perfect!! This is my new go-to peanut butter frosting recipe which is made up and everyone LOVED it! Especially when I topped the double chocolate cupcakes with it!

So, this is round one of cupcake craziness as I search for a perfect cake & frosting recipe. I expect I'll have to do this again soon as I read more. In the meantime I have a couple of occasion cakes to make...