My Nintendo DS Lite is the latest addition to my ever expanding family of pink personal electronics gadgets. I think it makes a pretty duo when partnered with a pink cupcake full of pink sprinkles and sparkly sugar. If I am a little girl, I would squeal with delight if I see this on the table the day of my birthday.
A few days ago, I needed one cupcake as part of my Halloween costume. So what did I do? I went and baked two dozens. I used a double batch of Rose Levy Beranbaum's pound cake recipe in vanilla variation (lemon poppyseed variation available here) which always gives me very consistent results. With all these cakes waiting for me to frost, I couldn't really relax the whole weekend. After much procrastination, I finally decided to go the lazy route and frost the cakes with a simple cream cheese icing. Unlike buttercream which is so labour-intensive, this icing is a one-bowl miracle and tastes fantastic. However, it is not stiff enough for piping and not thin enough for glazing. I had to smear it on each cake using good old offset spatula. Not to be overly picky, but there's smearing and then there's picture-perfect smearing. I think I did a pretty good job of making an artisitc swirl that looks homey yet precise at the same time.
Cream Cheese Icing (enough to frost 24 cupcakes)
Ingredients
- 8oz cream cheese, softened
- 4oz icing sugar
- 2 tbsp corn syrup
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- a pinch of salt
- pink gel food colouring
Method
- Put everything in a mixing bowl and beat at medium speed until no lumps remains.
- Using a toothpick, add a knife tip of food colouring to the icing. It is better to start with little and work your way up. You can always add more colour to deepen the shade. Mix at medium speed until the colour is evenly distributed.
