Bibliography: Tack, Karen and Alan Richardson. (2010).  What’s New, Cupcake? New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.  ISBN: 978-0547241814

Review:  I was blown away by Tack and Richardson’s first book, Hello, Cupcake.  The designs and photos were stunning and often had a sense of humor as well.  But many of the designs I really admired (like the dogs on the cover) seemed like a lot of work, and I, who has a set of icing bags and tips and has taken cake decorating classes, was also skeptical about using canned frosting and zipper bags to do most of the work.

When I heard there was a new book, I was still excited.  And the new book blows the old one out of the water, if that is possible.  The cupcakes and photos are still stunning, but now there are both difficult and complex designs along with “EZ” ones.  I especially think the first part of the book is invaluable, with very clear pictures of cupcake materials, tools, and techniques.  Showing what and how they use all kinds of candies, sprinkles and more makes it easier to understand the directions that follow, but also serves as an inspiration for readers to create their own designs.  The labeling of the photos gives the reader a reference of sorts to match to the instructions.

The designs themselves run the gamut from cute to creepy, with bright yellow rubber ducks, bouquets of flowers, fake Chinese food, ants, cockroaches (too realistic!), haunted houses and silly monsters.  Some of them, like Ring Bling or Flower Power lend themselves to make it yourself activities for children’s birthday parties.  Others, like Formula One (a racing car made of cupcakes) , Robo-Cup (robot), Sand Castles, and Haunted House would make great edible party centerpieces.  There are more adult friendly cupcakes, like bouquets of mums and roses, golf, and one that shows you how to copy a pattern that would be great for showers, weddings, or birthdays.  For a large or more elaborate party, it would be fun to make several different designs that have similar themes to serve together, like Haunted House, Black Cats and Jack ‘O Lanterns, or Sand Castle, Making Waves, and Whale of a Good Time.

When I decided to try some of the techniques myself, I decided to try a variation of Flower Power.  First I baked perfect cake mix cupcakes using french vanilla cake mix.  They were very moist.  Then I used the dipping cupcakes method to cover the top of each in bright green vanilla frosting.  This technique really works, it makes a perfect smooth almost shiny topped cupcake.  The only thing problem is if you heat the frosting too much, it becomes runny and doesn’t stick.  Then I attached cookies to pretzel sticks to serve as the flower base.  I found this less than satisfactory, as the chocolate never seemed to get hard, even after time in the fridge.  I used regular frosting in zipper bags to pipe frosting on the cookies in different flower shapes and used various candies and sprinkles to decorate them.  I did have a hard time with this, as the frosting warmed up quickly from my hands and was hard to control.  I think possibly my kitchen was too warm, but I think in the future I might try again but stir some powdered sugar into the frosting.  I found that the spearmint leaves were easy to cut into thinner leaves and made very attractive leaves for my flowers.  My biggest disappointment was realizing that these cupcakes were not very easy to transport, although I realize now that the cupcakes and flowers could be made separately and assembled on site.

You can see a few designs from the new book on Amazon:  An Apple for Teacher Cupcakes and Playing for Koi.  Some of their designs are also available from Duncan Hines.

Review Excerpts: “Kids and adults alike will find joy in the many artful creations, including a “pizza” supported by cupcakes and topped with fruit “pepperoni”; a banana split with cupcakes in the form of ice cream scoops, and Chinese takeout complete with Tootsie Roll broccoli florets. This is an innovative title that doesn’t hold back.”–Publisher’s Weekly

Reviewed from electronic advanced copy from NetGalley.  Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.