Celebration of Life Cupcakes

My friend Cindy had a Celebration of Life party this past weekend. Two weeks ago she celebrated her Leukemia being in remission for five years and this week she turns 30. I couldn't make the party, but I offered to make cupcakes for her. I made four different flavor combinations of cake and frosting and made different toppers to honor the two different achievements.

To make the toppers, I bought candy melts in purple (one of her favorite colors) and orange (Leukemia color). I put the candy melts in a pastry decorating bag and then microwaved them until they were melty. I free handed the ribbons, some hearts and some 30's. With the hearts and the 30's, I put some squiggly lines under them to stick them into the frosting. Because this was a special occasion, I bought some purple luster dust and orange edible glitter. I mixed the luster dust with some vanilla extract and painted it on once the candy melts had solidified. I sprinkled the glitter on the ribbons while they were still melty.


And yes, melty is totally a word.

To make the cupcakes, I followed a very complicated recipe.

Chocolate Cupcakes
1. Buy a box of Betty Crocker chocolate fudge cake mix.
2. Follow the directions for making cupcakes.

I topped the chocolate cupcakes with a Vanilla Buttercream (tinted teal) or a Peanut Butter Buttercream. I just use a basic buttercream recipe that is 2 cups powdered sugar to 1 stick of butter. For the peanut butter buttercream, I used 1/2 cup peanut butter, 1/2 cup butter, and 2 cups powdered sugar.



Strawberry Cupcakes
1. Buy a box of Betty Crocker white cake mix.
2. Follow directions for making cupcakes with this exception: wash a few strawberries and puree them. I used my Magic Bullet Blender and ended up with about a cup of strawberry puree. The cake mix called for 1 1/4 cups of water so I added water to the puree until I had 1 1/4 cups. Other than that, I followed the directions on the box.

I frosted the strawberry cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream or Lemon Buttercream. To make the Lemon, I added defrosted frozen lemonade concentrate to the basic buttercream recipe and added more powdered sugar until the frosting was the consistency I wanted.

I am so glad to I got to make these cupcakes to celebrate Cindy and her awesomeness.

I am glad she's cancer free.

And I'm glad she's finally old like me. =)


Happy Celebration of Life, Cindy!