Sweet & Savory

Happy Birthday, Nancy!

It was our good friend Nancy's birthday, and all birthday girls should get a birthday cake on their birthday, especially ones that survived through all those Chem-E classes with you and drove you down to SJ during traffic hour to your job interview! Nancy, being the sweetheart that she is, gave us free reign on the birthday cake. It could be any color, any size, and any flavor. (Well actually, we may have had so much artistic freedom simply because she didn't know she was getting a birthday cake. That helps too!) And this is what she got! Different sized cupcakes topped with white buttercream icing. Each cupcake has written on top one letter from the message, "Happy Birthday Nancy" in alternating pink and purple colored icing.

With the remaining cupcakes, we had a Martha-esque moment and dug out our March 2005 issue of Martha Stewart Living to get the instructions for piping buttercream chrysanthemums. For a couple of first-time pipers, I thought we did fairly well.

Despite some problems with food dyes and false alarms regarding "breaking" buttercreams, we finished the cupcakes with all its delicate buttery glory at 11:45pm. We rushed over, repeatedly rang the doorbell, waking up all of her roommates in the process, and made it through the front door at 11:52pm, a full 8 minutes before her birthday was officially over. So... Nancy, we wish you a wonderful birthday. May all your birthday wishes come true! :)

Vanilla Cupcakes
adapted from Martha Stewart Living, March 2005

Makes 26 cupcakes

• 8 oz. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 350ºC. Line muffin tin with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment. Cream on medium speed until pale yellow, about 2~3 minuntes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addititon. Add vanilla and mix. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with 2 batches of milk. Stir until evenly blended.

Pour batter into each cupcake liner until about 2/3 full. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the cupcake comes out completely clean. Let cool in the muffin pan for 20min. Remove from the pan and let cool completely on the wire rack. Wrap in Saran wrap, put in air-tight container, and refrigerate until ready to decorate.

Meringue Buttercream Icing
adapted from Martha Stewart Living, March 2005

Makes 10 cups

• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 12 large egg whites
• 2 pounds (8 sticks) unsalted butter, softened and cut into tablespoon size
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Whisk sugar and egg whites in large heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water until mixture reaches 140ºF on a candy thermometer, about 2~3 minutes. Beat the egg white mixture on medium speed with the whisk attachment until it holds stiff peaks. The mixture should be fluffy and cooled, about 10 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low and beat in butter, several tablespoons at a time. Add vanilla. Continue beating on low speed until everything comes together and all the air bubbles are gone. Stir with rubber spatula until frosting is smooth.