Cupcakes

Knit cupcakes by members of the

Camelllia City Stockinettes

I recently joined my local Knitting Guild the Camellia City Stockinettes. It is a wonderful group of talented and experienced knitters (plus a few crocheters). We have a meeting once a month. Each month there is a fun challenge project to knit. The finished projects are then brought to the following month's meeting for everyone to see. Tonight we got to see knitted cupcakes!

I missed last month's meeting so I did not knit a cupcake. I did however make over 50 cupcakes...the good old fashioned way!

Edible cupcakes by me!

My cupcakes were the edible type and not knitted. My knitting friend Catherine and I were the volunteers for tonight's refreshments. I was also urged on by my Guild friend Nina to make cupcakes due to the cupcake theme!

I love to bake. I make fabulous muffins nearly every weekend yet I hadn't made cupcakes since high school. Well, I figured cupcakes are kind of like muffins so this should be "a piece of cake"!

I purchased some adorable decorated cupcake liners by Wilton. I thought they would be perfect for the "cupcake theme". Well, my first batch of white cupcakes were a disaster. The liners burned and turned black.

In despair, instead of calling my Mother or even Martha Stewart...I called Danielle at Knitique. I knew she and her daughter make a lot of cupcakes and she used to even decorate cakes.

Well, it turns out that Danielle can teach me other things besides just knitting. She diagnosed the problem immediately. It was my fancy decorator paper cups. She told me just to use the ones (Reynolds brand) from the grocery store. Well, she was right. My next four dozen cupcakes turned out fine.

So I know have a few of my own cupcake secrets plus a few from Danielle. Here they are:

1) Duncan Hines Package mix is convenient and taste home-made! (Dark Chocolate Fudge and Yellow Cake were my favorites. I didn't like the White mix.)

2) Wilton's Buttercream Icing tastes delicious and pipes beautifully with a 1M star tip!

3) Bake only one pan at a time.

4) Use Reynolds baking cups and oil the top of the pan for when the cupcake top bakes up over the cup. (This prevents sticking and burning)

5) Danielle says "bake and frost the cupcakes the day before". They really do taste better!

There you have it. Now I just have to get Danielle to teach me how to make a cute knitted cupcake! I want to a make a cupcake pin cushion holder!