Piping Hot

02 Apr 08 | by Lorraine in: Baking, Super Sarap, Sweet Stuff

Much to the horror of my thighs, I’ve started baking again. It began when my sister asked me to bake a cake for her baby’s baptism party on Sunday. I decided that not only would I make my tried-and-tested Chocolate Mousse Cake (from Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess), I would surround the latter with vanilla cupcakes in varying sizes. Since I’ve never made vanilla cupcakes before (I know… I’m a chocolate person), I made a test run yesterday, using Billy’s Vanilla, Vanilla Cupcakes recipe from Martha Stewart.

The cupcakes were delicious. I cut down on the sugar in both the cake and frosting recipes, and they were still fantastic. Soft and moist and very light. But the best part was icing them.

I only have a very old, very cheap hand-me-down plastic icing decorating kit, so it was quite messy, but the cupcakes came out so pretty. Sorry, no photos- but I served some to guests last night, then sent the rest to various family members- and they were all gone before I could remember to photograph them!

Anyway, what I really want to say is that I LOVED piping the frosting. Even with my hot hands, even hotter kitchen, and el cheapo of the cheapest decorating sets, I had such a blast doing it. Now I want to buy a new set- but I need some advice. Should I order one of these?

…or stick to a more traditional set like this?

Your comments and suggestions please!