My dad's LJS store in Eustis was competing for the most festively decorated store in preparation for Mardi Gras and they asked for Shaun and I's help!
Before I moved to Mississippi I had never even heard of Mardi Gras, let alone celebrated it, but once I moved there I got a taste of the Mardi Gras "culture" and discovered how fun it can be!
For those of you, like me, who are Florida born and raised, trust me when I say Mardi Gras is not just about beer and beads! It's about SO much more!
So needless to say, I was a little enthusiastic about helping. I promised my LJS friends that I would attempt to make them a real king cake but as I thought about it, I realized:
1. I hate king cake.
2. It's hard to find and correctly use self-rising yeast in the FL humidity.
3. Cupcakes would taste better and be cuter too!
So there you have it, the cupcake king cake idea was born!
What does every smart girl do when she has a project idea? Well, go to pinterest of course! So after much searching and several great ideas, I combined what I saw and created this!
Clearly, it's not professional, but it definitely served it's purpose and was, from what I hear, a big hit!
Here's how I made it (it really is this simple, I promise!):
Prepare 2 store bought white cake mixes (mix in the eggs, oil, water, etc.)
Divide the cake batter into 3 ziploc bags.
Add green food coloring to one bag, purple to another and yellow to the last.
Cut the tip off of one bag and drop about one tbsp into a pre-greased cupcake pan, putting one tbsp of the first color into each cup.
Next, open a second color and add approximately 1 tbsp of that color to each cup in the cupcake pan and repeat with the last color as well.
You can choose to layer the colors or allow them to swirl. If you layer them be sure to level out the batter of one color before you add the rest. I chose to let mine swirl...here's how it turned out!
Next, once all the cupcakes have cooled you will need to get out a cookie sheet and a circular object (such as a mason jar or large glass) to serve as a place holder for the middle of your circle.
Place the mason jar (or whatever it is you're using) in the center of the tray you want your king cake on and arrange cupcakes in a circle around the center. Here's how mine turned out...
I put all of my frosting in a ziploc, similar to the cake batter senario, and squeezed it out onto each cupcake. This proved to be a lot less messy!
Then you spread your icing around so the cupcakes are connected into a circle and add your sprinkles!
Now let me caution you...I could find purple sprinkles absolutely NO where!
I checked on pinterest and found a super easy recipe for homemade sprinkles and it worked like a charm! All you have to do is save a little of the food coloring that you already have for the batter (using red and blue to make purple) and add in as much sugar as you need sprinkles. Put a lid on the container they are in and shake away! If you need to use them immediately you can spread them out on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven that is already warm from baking cupcakes! They will get hard and mold together, but no fear, they are easily broken apart back into tiny sprinkle-like crystals!
I had a little bit of icing left over (from 2 jars) and quite a few cupcakes so I decided to try just one more decorating/baking technique that I am planning on using for a wedding shower soon!
I used the little icing I had left over and frosted the tops of each of the remaining cupcakes, then spread the sprinkles out on a cookie sheet and rolled the top of each cupcake in the left over sprinkles, adding tons of color to the top of those cupcakes!
I suppose that's all for today! I would love to hear some of your creative baking/decorating techniques!
-Kristy
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