Sunday, February 22, 2015

Better Late Than Never: Cupcake & Smiles

It's taken me a while to get the photos up, but I couldn't miss the opportunity the show you how Linda and I spent some time in February with our friend Steph and the ladies of the Elk Rapids Women group. You'll remember a few months ago  we got together to paint (if not, you can check it out here). Well, earlier this month the same group of women got together to learn how to decorate cupcakes. (Please excuse the out-of-order photos).

"Seriously?" Yes Linda, I'm seriously taking your picture. You'd think she'd be used to this by now...

It started with Chef Andi Pellicci, owner of As You Dish, providing cupcakes, frosting, and sprinkles for everyone. She also brought a ton of disposable piping bags and about a dozen different tips for us to use on our cupcakes. 
Scooping out some frosting. There was a TON of frosting (which I tried to scam and bring home, but it didn't work.)
Our first step, however, was coloring the frosting.



Since it was early February, pink seemed appropriate for Valentine's day, though we did play around with a few other colors throughout the night. Even though neither Linda, Steph, or I had ever decorated cupcakes before, we all took to it pretty quickly. Maybe that's because cupcakes are so easy and forgiving - not a lot of surface area, and you can hide mistakes behind candy flowers.

Linda was a big fan of the sprinkles. She didn't mind piping, but she preferred the candy bits.
 
Steph, the naturally-talented decorator. I tried to keep my cupcakes away from hers so they wouldn't feel ugly.
Technically we each paid for six cupcakes, but Chef Andi had a bunch left over, so she let us decorate more. That worked out well for us, because we had so much fun that, even though I brought a dozen of my own gluten-free cupcakes, we still left with about 20!

Another fun night out with the girls!

Linda and Chef Andi - I swear, they didn't plan to match :)
Here's a look at a few of our creations:

One of the things I love so much about Linda is how she dives into all of these activities with me. She's never painted, used royal icing, or decorated cupcakes before, but it doesn't stop her. She's willing to try pretty much anything, and she almost always has a good time. In fact, we had so much fun with the cookies and cupcakes that I bought my own set of Wilton bags and decorating tips. You can expect to see many more creations from Linda and me :)