White Cupcakes with Pastel Buttercream Peaks

Well last night I decided to make some white cupcakes with pastel buttercream peaks for uncle Wayne, who requested white cake with white icing, so this is what I chose. I had my little helper Taylor assisting me...well making me crazy by touching everything and trying to stir everything, etc. She didn't end up helping much in the end, other than setting up boobie traps for me to trip over...such as her step stool.

The cake part was quite simple, other than I needed egg whites instead of yolks...and realized I was throwing away the part I needed after egg number two! Things were going along just fine, and then my hand mixer broke...so it only has one mixer instead of two...this seamed to make things take FOREVER!! I was about ready to send my helper to bed after she ripped out a page of my cookbook...

Cake part was baking and I started the frosting part...my stand mixer was extremely helpful as I needed to make the meringue part first requiring egg whites and sugar to be whisked in a bowl over simmering water until the mixture was warm and the sugar was dissolved...I let it get super hot as I was worried about salmonella poisoning LOL...I am so paranoid!

Anyway, that part took about 10 minutes, and then I put it in the stand mixer on medium for about 10 minutes until it became meringue...thankfully I didn't have to hold a broken hand mixer for two hours...as it would have taken forever!

After the meringue is the right consistency you slowly add a WHOLE pound of butter by the tablespoon until it is all mixed...holy cow - not sure I will ever eat buttercream after seeing how much butter is in it!!!

Then it required to be beat with a paddle attachment for two minutes...again, very thankful for the mixer or it would have been hand mixing with a spoon!

Okay...so now we get to the exciting part...icing the cupcakes. It was about 9:30pm on a Tuesday night, and I realized at this point that the actual recipe calls for buttercream peaks...which looks like a flower when it is done, and doesn't sound hard in theory...but after doing 24 cupcakes and realizing I used the wrong tip to start with (much smaller starburst than I ended up finishing with). Once I realized they weren't going to be perfect, and that the buttercream melts extremely fast when it is in your hand...I decided time was worth more to me than perfection...so I piped them as quickly as I could, and ended up having to alternate colors and placing the piping bags in the fridge to help firm the icing up.

All in all, everyone seemed to LOVE them at work...I took about 16 cupcakes to work and took 6 for uncle Wayne...and the ones at work were gone by lunch time...with a few repeat taste testers...muah ha ha...they will all be fattened up at this rate...LOL - Kidding...they are all healthy skinny people that could use the fattening anyway...

So...this was a good recipe...I found the cake was a tad dry...and I only cooked them for 14 minutes instead of the 18 to 20 recommended - as they tested as done at 14 minutes...they probably would have been rocks if I had left them the extra time. The buttercream was quite tasty...very smooth and silky and not too sweet.

I am thinking a coconut inspired cupcake will be next...stay tuned!