Sour Octopus Cupcakes

Hello hello =)

Inspired by my dorm's cupcake baking contest, I headed to Pinterest to dig up a creative cupcake idea (in retrospect, this was not the best idea, since it reignited my mild Pinterest addiction). After a little searching, I found something promising: Sour Patch Kid cupcakes. Vanilla cupcakes with jam filling topped with frosting mixed with citric acid (the sour sugar used in the gummies) and a Sour Patch Kid candy.

Now that I had the base, it was time to make it my own.

I went shopping for ingredients, borrowed a few baking supplies (my dorm's kitchen, while it does supply basic baking equipment, can get absolutely disgusting), grabbed my friend JA, and got to baking.

The base: Betty Crocker white cake mix. I doubt that my dorm would supply quality flour, and let's face it, I'm lazy. I followed the directions on the box, except that I added three whole eggs instead of three egg yolks. After talking to a friend, I decided not to add the jam filling; he thought the flavor would be terrible against the sour topping.

The topping: Betty Crocker while frosting with Jello gelatin powder to add color and flavor (this was something I found on Pinterest). I used Mango and Berry Blue to get orange and blue, although the Mango definitely came out lighter than expected (I probably should have gone with Orange to get a darker color). This idea can definitely still use some work, because while it did color the frosting, too much Jello powder made it granular. This was a problem with the Mango - do I go with the darker color, or with the better texture? Also, the Jello did make the frosting taste a bit artificial. Since there weren't any plastic bags to use, JA and I scooped the colored frosting onto a sheet of plastic wrap, created a cone, and cut a small hole in the bottom to frost the cupcakes.

Instead of going with Sour Patch Kids, I decided to use sour octopi, the lesser-known cousins to sour gummy worms. The reason was mostly aesthetic - they would just sit better on top of the cupcake. This plan did backfire in two ways: not only did I not buy enough sour gummies (only eight or nine gummies in a pack?!), but there was a third color combination that I didn't consider: purple/pink (the frosting colors were meant to coordinate with the yellow/orange and green/blue octopi). I ended up topping the remaining cupcakes with sour gummy worms instead. To my disappointment, my local grocery store doesn't carry citric acid, so I had to make do with sprinkling the cupcakes with the leftover sour sugar in the candy packages.

The result of attempt #1.

The day of the cupcake bake-off arrived, and with experience under our belts, JA and I began our second attempt. This time, we made three different frosting colors: I bought Raspberry Jello to make pink, and WOW did it pigment the frosting! A pinch went a long, long way - we added more white frosting in order to tone down the hue so it would match the pastel blue and orange. 

The physical act of frosting them, though, didn't go white as well as last time. For some reason, the neither of us were getting the results we wanted using the same plastic wrap technique - perhaps, but dividing one can of frosting into three colors, we didn't leave ourselves enough to properly frost with? In any case, I ended up fixing the frosting mishaps by hand. They most definitely didn't look as good as the swirls in attempt #1, but it was the best I could do.

The result of attempt #2.

JA and I submitted our three best cupcakes to the bake-off and donated the above tray of cupcakes to the study break. And...we still don't know the results of this bake-off! It's been five days already, and I doubt many people entered - how long does it take to judge cupcakes? The world may never know.

Until next time!
~Pink heels