I am a huge fan of Rachel Ray and her 30-minute meals. Such insight and delicious meals I have gained from her shows. Much like Rachel Ray, I too am not the world's best pastry chef; however, I love to embellish either pre-made desserts or take the helpful hand of my Fairy God-Parents, Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines. :-)
A sucker for any excuse to be creative; I thought the 4th of July Holiday would be a perfect reason to celebrate. I decided to send some yummy treats with my daughter to school. I enlisted the help of my Fairy God-Parents to bake up 48 fresh cupcakes. It takes a lot of supplies to make this happen. I needed cake mix, frosting, red/white/blue sprinkles and candy melts, and some very patriotic red and white polka dot paper cupcake liners.
One of my favorite inspirational cupcake books is "Hello, Cupcake!" authored by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. This cook book is amazing! It covers ideas for every season, every holiday, every possible party theme.
I had fallen in love with a pattern for a Fall Monarch Butterfly cupcake design. Some of my best ideas are created from scratch; but some transpire from taking someone else's great idea and adapting it to fit my need. I transformed the Fall Monarch Butterfly design into a Patriotic Butterfly theme. Super easy. You fill a plastic baggy with melted candy melts, trace a pattern on paper covered by wax parchment, and boom! Utilize basic Kindergarten skills of staying inside the lines, allow the candy melts to harden and peel the design away from the wax paper. Easy, easy. For added flair, swirl the outer and inner colors together to make a more dramatic effect.
I wanted to create a few different designs to add some variety to the mix. The remainder of my designs were pretty basic but really made the butterfly cupcakes stand out as show pieces. I was very pleased with the final product and the Teachers absolutely loved the special treat!
Cheers to cupcakes and a great American Holiday! Happy 4th of July everyone!