The Best Way to Make Friends is with Food

Reader! It's always a struggle to meet new people (in my case neighbours) and I'm left wondering what can I bring to introduce myself and immediately connect the image of me with something positive. Every single time I come to the conclusion I ought to bring food and that it needs to be something you don't have to cut into and can be given out separately. I also just got a job at a cafe that said they may want to sell my baked goods, so I wanted to practice my piping skills. I'm about 500% ready to move to a different country and open a bakery and these made me really excited! So here you go, have a fun!

Love,

me

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Honey Vanilla Cupcakes Yields: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

2 2/3 cups all purpose flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 cup softened unsalted butter

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup sour cream or greek yogurt

1.5 cups heavy cream

2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp vanilla extract

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 farenheit.

Take the softened butter and beat it until it's light and fluffy, then add the sugar. Honestly, you can use just granulated sugar, but I think the brown sugar has that richness that granulated doesn't, as well as adding more moisture. Whip the heavy cream to soft peaks. Alternate adding the flour and heavy cream and mix until fully combined. Whip egg whites into stiff peaks. Add egg yolks, baking powder, sour cream, honey, and vanilla, and beat until smooth. Fold egg whites into the batter. Spoon batter into cupcake liners, make them about three quarters full and then bake for roughly 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Leave to cool for 20-30 minutes before adding the frosting.

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Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

1.5 sticks Softened Unsalted Butter

3 cups Powdered Sugar

1.5 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/4 cup Heavy Whipping Cream

Strawberry extract (you can find this at walmart)

A small bag of white chocolate candy melts

Recipe:

Whip your butter until it's light and fluffy and then add in your powdered sugar in spoonfuls. This may sound tedious but it prevents lumpiness. Add your vanilla extract and about 1 cap full of the strawberry extract (about 1/4 tsp). Taste it to see if you need more. The next part is about consistency, so look at your frosting and if it just looks like butter and it's not entirely cohesive and like a mousse (thicker than pudding), add a little bit of whipping cream until you get that. It shouldn't take more than 1/4 cup. Add in your choice of gel food colouring. Next, put whatever tip you want to use into your piping bag (I used a wilton rose tip) and fill it with your frosting. Chill that in the fridge for 5 minutes and then pipe your roses. If your roses start to look runny as you're piping them, stick your frosting back in the fridge because that is just a result of the butter melting. Put the cupcakes in the fridge for 15 minutes or freezer for 5 while you get the leaves bit ready.

Melt a quarter of the candy melts in the microwave for 30 seconds and stir and then back in the microwave for another 30 seconds. It's extremely important that you make sure it's completely melted and there are zero lumps, otherwise it will be impossible to pipe. Add green food gel and put in a piping bag with a leaf tip, which kinda looks like inverse brackets {}. Pipe inbetween your roses and just whatever you think looks good! Leave in the fridge for the chocolate to set up for 10 minutes and then you're good to serve it : )