Cupcakes With Piped Flowers Recipes

Steps:

• Starting with 1 drop at a time, add gel-paste food coloring to buttercream. Stir well to combine. Add more food coloring, stirring constantly, until desired color is reached. Dab buttercream on top of pastry nail, and press a 2-inch square of parchment on top. Reserve half the buttercream for frosting tops of cupcakes. Fit pastry bag with coupler, and fill with remaining buttercream. Place tip of coupler in center of parchment square, squeeze pastry bag gently, and pull up slowly to make an acorn-shaped mound (this is the bud).
• Fit pastry bag with petal tip. (You can anchor the nail in Styrofoam or a potato with a flat-cut bottom.) Hold tip against the point of the bud, wide end down and narrow end angled in toward center. While turning the nail slowly, pipe a wide, tight strip, enrobing the top of the bud. Turning the nail as you go, pipe 2 arched petals that each reach around half of the bud. Continue turning the nail and piping, making longer, overlapping petals and angling further outward as you go, until you reach the bottom of the rose. Gently slide parchment with rose onto a baking sheet, and refrigerate until firm, at least 20 minutes (or up to 2 days). Repeat to make more roses.
• Frost tops of cupcakes with buttercream. Using a small offset spatula, gently place a rose on top of each cupcake, discarding parchment.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 8 muffin cups or line with paper liners.
• Combine 6 1/2 tablespoons butter, sugar, and vanilla sugar in a bowl; beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and beat until smooth.
• Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl and add to the batter. Beat for another 5 minutes. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each 3/4 full.
• Bake in the preheated oven until tops spring back when lightly pressed, about 14 minutes. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool, about 20 minutes. Cupcakes sink slightly after baking, which is fine as it creates a flat surface for the flowers.
• Combine 1/4 cup butter and cream cheese in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until well combined. Add confectioner's sugar, 1/4 cup at a time. Beat in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract after half the confectioners' sugar is incorporated. Set aside.
• Pour colored sugar into different small bowls. Cut each large marshmallow into 5 slices. Dip marshmallow pieces with the cut side down into one of the colors so the sugar will stick to the marshmallow. Repeat with the other marshmallows and different colors.
• Spread a layer of frosting over each cupcake. Arrange 5 marshmallow slices on each cupcake in the shape of flower petals. Place a candy-colored chocolate piece in the middle.