While sprinkles come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, the ones you’ll use most in this book are as follows:
Jimmies – Long thin sprinkles in a rainbow of colors (Figure 1),
Confetti – Round flat circles, usually sold in a mixed color variety (Figure 2).
Nonpareils or Dragées – Teeny, tiny balls in varied sizes, usually in rainbow colors or coated in metallic gold or silver (Figure 3).
Sanding Sugar – Coarse grain sugar, great for adding a bit of sparkle and crunch. (Figure 4).
Stand / Hand Mixer
I have (and worship!) a shiny silver KitchenAid mixer; I call it “The Silver Surfer.” While I recommend a stand mixer for anyone getting into baking in a serious way, all recipes in this book can also be made with a handheld mixer. In fact, some recipes, like the 7-Minute Floofy Frosting on page 66, will specifically require a hand mixer. I would recommend against hand mixing the recipes in this book with a spoon, no matter how buff your biceps are, particularly the Buttercream frostings, which require a large amount of air to be incorporated.
Vanilla Bean Paste vs Liquid Vanilla Extract
While there’s no doubt that liquid vanilla from the baking aisle of your local grocery will do the trick, there’s nothing quite like the professional presentation provided by vanilla bean paste. While both vanillas will taste very similar in your recipe, the tiny black flecks reminiscent of a scraped vanilla bean pod that appear in your cake or frosting are a visual reminder of the vanilla flavor dancing on people’s taste buds. You’d be surprised how much of a boost the extra sensory cue adds to the cake ‘nomming’ experience!
Whisk
Often, recipes will have you sift your flour with a sifter. This is to separate any clumps and make it easier to combine it with other dry ingredients, as well as with the wet ingredients. The same effect can be achieved with a metal whisk and some vigorous stirring, and using a whisk will save you having to keep a sifter around the kitchen. It can kick up a mean flour dust cloud, however, so maybe do your whisking near
the sink.
Wooden Toothpicks
Between using toothpicks as cake testers and scooping up bits of gel dye with them, I go through a crazy amount of toothpicks. To check that your cupcake or cake is baked through, stick a toothpick into the very middle, right down to the bottom. If the toothpick comes out clean, then your batter is baked through. If not, it needs to go back in the oven for a few more minutes. Don’t be deceived! Make sure it’s batter you’re seeing on the toothpick and not a sneaky melted chocolate chip.
X-acto Knife
I like keeping some of these sharp blades on hand to cut around templates in both fondant and dough. Be sure to use them on a cutting board, and don’t chop up your kitchen counter. A thin, sharp paring knife can also be used instead. Either way, be careful around the pointy end, adventurer. #sharpthingsaresharp
Skills Training and Combat Tricks
Masterful baking comes from sweet foundations. And practice, practice, practice.
As a budding baking adventurer, you’ll want to become proficient in a variety of skills that will aid you on your journey. Your charisma stat may be through the roof, but if your dexterity is lacking, you’ll end up with more frosting on your tabard then on your cake. Today your training in the foundational skills required for the recipes outlined in this book begins. The trials ahead may be dark and full of terrors, but you’ll be ready – let’s get started.
How to Portion Out Buttercream
When portioning out how much buttercream you’ll need to frost your cupcakes, it’s a good idea to use an ice cream scoop or disher, with one scoop per cupcake (Figure 1). If you only need 5 cupcakes with green mint frosting, put 5 scoops of your prepared buttercream in a separate bowl, then tint and flavor it before putting it in the piping bag. Then if you have any leftover buttercream, you can save it for later in the fridge, wrapped in a square of plastic wrap.
How to Fill a Piping Bag
Drop a piping tip (or a coupler, if you’re using a
small tip) into the bag. Using scissors, cut off the tip of the bag, removing only as much as it takes for the coupler / tip to just stick out of the bag (Figure 2). If you cut it too wide, the opening will stretch under the pressure of piping and launch your piping tip across the room, along with a gob of buttercream frosting. Slide your large tip out until taut, or attach the small tip and outer ring of your coupler.
Hold the piping bag in your left hand around the middle, and fold the edge over your hand. Using your right hand, fill the bag with frosting using a spatula (Figure 3). You can use the edge of your left hand to wipe the frosting off the spatula. Do not overfill! Fill the bag just over halfway and no more, or you won’t be able to twist it shut without it oozing out of the back of the bag.
Twist the bag closed until all of the air is pushed out of the bag and the frosting comes peeking out of the tip. You’re ready to go!
How to Frost a Cupcake
Now that you’ve got your piping bag full of buttercream frosting ready to go, let’s get to piping! Different tips have different effects, depending on the type of frosted cupcake you’re looking to make, but almost all of them require the same motion – rotating at the wrists.
A common error I see when people are learning to frost a cupcake is that they move their upper arms and hands in small circles over the cupcake, like they’re stirring a pot. Instead, make sure you are rotating only your wrists, and in circles that, with each rotation, grow smaller. Usually it takes about two and a half rotations to get there. When you reach the center of the cupcake, release pressure and pull up quickly for a pointed tip. This gives you much more control over your movements and keeps you centered over the cupcake. Watch someone making ice cream cones from a soft-serve machine – it’s the same movement, just upside down!
It may help (or hinder!) to pick up your cupcake in your other hand while you pipe, as opposed to keeping it on a flat surface. Give both methods a try and see which you prefer.
Pictured are some of the different frosting effects that can be achieved