I positively adore watching those cake decorating contests on television and just marvel at the ingenuity of the decorators crafting these tall and elaborate masterpieces. A few years ago I took a cake decorating course where I learned the basics. Each week we were to bring a cake to frost and design. My husband, who signed me up for the class as a gift, especially loved when I came home from class, toting along a cake decked out with chrysanthemums, barnyard animals or intricate vines or whatever we learned that week. Though it might be crazy to admit, we found ourselves with too much cake week to week with all this decorating practice, so I decided to make cupcakes and stow them in freezer and practice my decorating on them.
Since then, I have a special fondness for terrifically cute cupcakes, especially ones decorated to look like something very different than cupcakes, like savory foods. A great blog by the Hello Cupcake authors has amazing pictures of spaghetti and meatballs cupcakes. Check out these super cute hamburger cupcakes from the Cupcakes Take the Cake blog. These would be fun for a barbecue or as a pick-me-up in the dead of winter.
I want to share my latest cupcake creation which is fantastic for Hanukkah, latke cupcakes. The coconut covered cupcakes look like the lacy potato pancakes that are traditional to eat during Hanukkah.
To make, follow the recipe for Double Coconut Cupcakes. Be sure to dip the frosted tops in the coconut very thoroughly, so the entire cupcake is frosted. Top the coconut with a small dollop of frosting to look like sour cream, sprinkle the “sour cream” with green sprinkles to look like chives. These are also fun to make in a muffin top pan.
For even more fun, make these cupcakes into a menorah (a great idea that I originally saw in Joan Nathan’s wonderful kids’ cookbook) by placing nine in a row and inserting a birthday candle in each.
Here's how I made these cupcakes:
This is the toasted coconut. Here's a tip: if you smell the cocnut as it is toasting, it is probably overdone. The trick to toasting coconut (and even nuts) is to remove from the oven before you smell the aroma of the toasting food.
Then, frost them. That tool is called an offset spatula, and it makes frosting anything very easy.
Then, dip the cupcake right in the coconut. It is ok to press it into the coconut. The cupcakes look more like latkes if the top is flatter than a typically domed cupcake.
Top cupcakes with a dollop of frosting and some green sprinkles. Don't these look just like latkes?
