So do any of you out there absolutely LOVE to bake and eat cakes and cupcakes but hate store bought frosting? I for one not only hate the taste of it but the all around texture just isn't right to me either. I grew up with my mother and grandmother absolutely spoiling me with AMAZING cooking and baking abilities which I didn't seem to inherit. I can bake pretty much anything as long as I have a good recipe (or directions on a box) but I am not gifted with the ability to just throw stuff together and make it taste good. As much as I try, it just doesn't happen. However, like I said, I AM good at following a well written recipe.
The hard part I have been having is that with all the recipes out there for frosting, they are either too sweet in the end, or they don't come out to the correct consistency that I need them to be for what I want. I am looking for a really light, fluffy, not super sweet, creamy frosting that goes good on pretty much any kind of cake or cupcake. After making a new batch of mini-cupcakes last night, I decided that this would be my newest adventure that I would share with you.
I make a lot of mini-cupcakes these days because my kids absolutely love them, and believe me when I say, I have tried DOZENS of recipes for frosting. From your basic butter-cream, to some even more elaborate ones that involved me cooking butter and milk on the stove and then adding plain white flour first before adding it to the rest of the sugar and whatnot. And those are just the butter-cream recipe's I tried. I am not even going to get into the issues I have with the regular "super fluffy cake frosting" they have online that I so sadly attempted to make. It was the worst cake frosting I had ever tasted and that includes the NASTY store kinds. It was so sweet it made my cheeks hurt. My kids wouldn't even eat it, and that tells you something. :-) So last night, I made a new batch of mini's and as they were coming out of the oven, I was kicking myself because YET AGAIN I hadn't thought about what I was going to do for frosting. I'll eat them without it. I kinda prefer 'em that way sometimes to be honest, they are less messy, but I know my dear hubby and kids like them frosted and I was freaking out inside because I didn't want to RUIN another batch of perfectly good cupcakes because I made a horrible frosting that made them completely inedible. So instead of frosting them, I put them away and decided that I would tackle this dilemma when I had more time to actually think about it and go to the store for ingredients. I hate just throwing stuff together that I have in my cupboards knowing good and well that I can't cook like that.
Oddly enough, I had a brainstorm in my sleep last night that I am going to try when I get off work, which involves super soft Philly cream cheese, sifted confectioners sugar and a teaspoon of REAL Vanilla Extract. I had this thought that even though I have tried good recipe's for cream cheese frosting I wasn't really following them to the best of my ability because I wasn't letting the cream cheese get soft enough before trying to whip it into frosting. I'm hoping that my sudden light-bulb of and idea actually works and I get some super yummy cupcakes to post about tomorrow! I'm off work now, so on to my cupcake frosting adventure! Wish me luck!
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