Aspiring To Be My Sister

Today is my friend Andrea's birthday--Happy Birthday, Andrea! Sadly, she has to spend most of her birthday studying for a test that all of the law kids have to take on Saturday, so I wanted to drop by her apartment with something yummy. I went decidedly non-gourmet and made what I most love on my own birthday (and any other occasion, really): Funfetti cupcakes! Yup, the Pillsbury mix. For some reason, even though it's just white cake with sprinkles in it, it just makes me happy and feels so birthday-ish.

In an effort to spruce up my Funfetti a little bit, I decided to experiment with the pastry bags in my culinary school tool kit instead of just slapping the frosting on with a butter knife like I usually do. I've never piped frosting before, but I've seen my little sister Hilary do it many times with beautiful results. She was a studio art major in college and is now applying her skills to baked goods as a decorator at Just Cakes in our hometown of Bethesda. Over the summer, she made these lovely cupcakes for my friends' wedding (coincidentally, the bride--who you see in the background--is another friend named Andrea):



I picked out a large round tip from the dozens of choices in my kit and (messily) spooned the purchased Funfetti frosting into my pastry bag. I tried to make marshmallowy-looking swirls of frosting to mimic Hilary's pretty little caps shown above. I definitely need some practice, but all in all, they turned out pretty well. A few of the caps were a little small because I ran out of frosting - piping uses WAY more frosting than simply spreading it on top of the cakes. I was able to hide some imperfections with a generous dusting of sprinkles. Ta-da!



Now I'm really looking forward to perfecting my piping skills in our Intro to Baking & Pastry class, a few rotations down the road.

p.s. Zack would like to point out that he helped to make these cupcakes for Andrea. He served as the all-important taster.