Super Bowl Cupcakes: Packers and Steelers

So this is the third consecutive year in which I have made Super Bowl cuppin' cakes. I m glad that the logos are somewhat easy this year. As a non-football-follower-person, I probably wouldn't have known who was playing tonight if I didn't have to know in order to make these cupcakes. At any rate, I hope these little confections looks sort of close to what these teams are wearing.

I started with a French Vanilla cake mix made with an almond emulsion. I let the little cakes cool, then I made a single batch of Butter-Vanilla Buttercream. After icing the tops of the cakes white, I put them into the cupcake holder that they were going to end up in. It's much easier this way than going through all that work then accidentally smushing it on its way to the box.

I mixed up some dark green for the Packers logo and drew the "G." I went back over and made a little green oval around.

Then I mixed some goldenrod and made an outline around each green oval...

For the Steelers, I used the same goldenrod and drew the top diamond, then followed suit with the red and blue.

After all colors were used, I mixed all of them together and mixed black into it. I tried my very best to write "Steelers" with a tiny 1 tip, but you can sort of make out what it means to say. Hopefully, these cupcakes will be a hit at the Super Bowl party tonight!

As for which team I'm rooting for... I have no idea! May the best team win!

Baking with an Emulsion

 
I like baking from scratch, but I also have a soft-spot for Duncan Hines cake mix. It seems to work a lot better for me as opposed to the other brands. Believe me, I've tried. I have cupcakes to make for my beloved's father's birthday, so I decided to go with a simple but tasty flavor: yellow almond cake. I would also mix almond flavor with white cake, if you wanted to go for a lighter, classier feel (wedding, perhaps?) Plus, adding extracts to cake mix is a fast and easy way to achieve a unique flavor without the fuss of trial and error.

So what is an emulsion? It is like an extract, except it is made with gum trag instead of alcohol. The flavor is much more intense, and its texture allows whatever your flavoring to maintain its consistency. For this recipe, I followed the mixing instructions, then put 2 tsp of almond emulsion in before I beat the batter for two minutes. I added about 1/2 teaspoon at a time, until I tasted the right amount.

Adding almondy-delicousness

If you want to go super bold, go for a whole tablespoon. But beware! Adding too much can make your cake super overwhelming and have an odd berry/ cherry flavor.

My kitchen was filled with such an amazing smell when these came out!

I am debating between either making Michigan University cupcakes or golf-themed cupcakes. Michigan actually has a game going on tonight, so I don't want to make fail-cakes if they lose... that would NOT be cool... Plus, I think I have a cute idea for golf-cuppin' cakes anyway. I'll keep you posted!