Bake it and they will come.
Not many houses can boast going through 2 dozen cupcakes in 2 days but here in a yellow brick house in Pittsburgh we can. With a little help. The marble cupcakes the other day proved a good dessert for us and dinner guests. These blue-and-white guys were a treat for some after dinner guests we had last night.
This yellow cupcake is topped by Italian Meringue Buttercream pulled into spikes and sprinkled with light blue sparkling sugar. The colors remind me of Christmas---I've always liked whites, silvers and blues for Christmas best of all.
I never knew how Italian Buttercream was made. You have two different concoctions going at once; egg whites being beat until stiff and glossy and a sugar syrup boiling on the stove. It's crucial to watch the sugar syrup and remove it from the heat when it reaches 248 degrees. Then the sugar syrup is poured over the meringue in a near impossible manuever to avoid getting the hot syrup on the beater or the bowl. Lovely little hard balls of candy will form on the sides of the bowl that aren't redeemable if you miss the meringue. You continue beating until the mixture is cool and then the butter is beaten in until smooth and creamy. This frosting is satiny smooth and glossy and just begged me to pull it into little spikes when I put it on top of the cupcakes.
A single cupcake remains. I wonder who will claim it.
