Stars and Stripes

I know it's been a while since I've posted. Minus a batch of cookies I made for some very over-stressed co-workers of mine, it's been equally long since I've baked. But a holiday weekend with a cookout extravaganza was enough to bring me out of culinary hiding!

For the second year in a row, my brother and Bryan planned a colossal Memorial Day cookout at my parents' cabin in the mountains. The final guest count numbered somewhere in the low to mid 40's, and the smoker was fired up 24 hours in advance. We certainly take our BBQ seriously! With Kevin and Bryan outdoing themselves on an 18 lb. brisket, 2 turkeys, and 9 racks of ribs, I couldn't sit by and not make a contribution. So, naturally, I decided to make Memorial Day cupcakes.

I pondered several more complicated designs, including a flag and a watermelon, but the traveling and the amount of preparation involved in the event pursuaded me to do something a little faster and simpler. I made the icing at home Thursday night so I wouldn't have to travel with my mixer but decided to bake the cupcakes Saturday morning so they would be fresh for the cookout that evening. The cake was my standard box mix with an extra egg taken from the oven and put immediately in the freezer for a few minutes to stop the cooking process. It didn't let me down - the cake was moist and tasty. I piped the buttercream with the 1M tip, my favorite for cupcakes. I used the Wilton color mist and sprayed half of the cupcakes blue and the other half red. My initial plan was to sprinkle blue sprinkles on the red-sprayed cupcakes and red sprinkles on the blue-sprayed cupcakes. However, when I'd done that, they still looked like something was missing, so all the cupcakes got both red and blue sprinkles. Stars and stripes cupcake wrappers and flag toppers from Wilton completed the look.

Even though decorating couldn't have taken me more than 15 minutes total, I would deem the cupcakes a success! Guests were afraid to grab them at first because they didn't want to mess up the display. (Of course, once the first one was gone, the other cupcakes followed very quickly.) I got a lot of compliments and even a few comments that people thought they were professional. I thank the 1M tip for that! :)