PRODUCT REVIEW: Hello, Cupcake! Book

I recently received this book as a gift (thanks Jennie, I really like it!). It’s all about how to make professional-looking cupcakes without being a professional. If you like cupcakes, you need this book!

This book is unique in that it is meant for the at-home or everyday baker because it uses things you already have on hand. You don’t need fancy pastry tips or specialty sprinkles. If you don’t have the items already in your pantry you can find them at your local grocery store.

The book gives a short, but sweet, introduction about some key elements in decorating. It would have been nice to have a little more detail on some topics, but part of the fun of cupcakes is experimenting and figuring it out on your own.

I decided to try the sunflower cupcakes, because they looked like the simplest cupcake in the book. I love how every cupcake idea has a picture. It really helps a person to know whether they are on the right track or not! Also, the step by step decorating instructions are coherent and easy to follow.

Here is how the process went for me:

Start with some freshly made, and cooled, cupcakes. I decided to make two different sizes.

Frost the tops of the cupcakes with a layer of green frosting. The book gives a quick tutorial for how to make smooth frosting. It really helped me.

Firmly place an Oreo cookie, whether big or small, on top of the green frosting to secure it to the cupcake.

Make up some yellow and orange frosting. Food Network has a great site for how to make crazy frosting colors with a standard box of food coloring, check it out here.

Place the frosting into your bag. The book teaches you have to make pastry bags from your regular sandwich bags. The helpful tip in the book worked better than I thought.

Begin piping the frosting around the cookie. The two colors were supposes to swirl, but I put too much orange in the bottom and the colors ended up blending instead. So, be careful with how much of each color you put in and it’s placement to the tip of the bag.

The book teaches you, ever so quickly, about the different piping techniques. This style was for petals. Continue piping the petal shape until you’ve made a complete circle around the cookie.

When the first petal layer is complete you’ll start making a second layer. Just pipe the petals around the cookie again, but placing them in between the petals of the first layer.

Continue with the rest of your cupcakes and before you know it you will have a whole counter of sunflower cupcakes.

Overall, I thought this book was really fun and it’s always nice to have a picture of each idea. It’s easy to use especially for a beginner.

I wish it gave a little more details about some of the specific techniques, as I had to waste a few cupcakes figuring out how to make the petals look right.

I would totally recommend this book to the cupcake lover!