Friday Photo — Pinterest Cupcake Fail

Ah, Pinterest. That crazy morass of aspirational ideas. I admit to having cadged more than one idea by browsing the boards, and they’re not always successful.

Case in point, my attempt at what were supposed to be cute “Ice Cream Cone” cupcakes—you know, ice cream cones filled with cupcake batter, baked up into little puffy domes and then topped with frosting for a full-on, double-scoop cone experience.

Uh, if I told you I was going for a mid-summer melt look, would you believe me?

I made a batch for Shake’s birthday dessert for family dinner—he loves peanut butter, so I used a peanut butter cupcake recipe (it came out a bit dense and dry, a lot more muffin-y in texture than cupcake-y; now that I think about it, so did the Peanut Butter Blondies I made for him last year), and topped it with a strawberry frosting. The idea was a riff on peanut butter and strawberry jam.

I don’t know why frosting and I have such a complicated relationship, but seriously, the only time it really works for me is when I make the Momouku Milk Bar frostings. Those always come out smooth and spreadable, yet stay firm and don’t ooze all over the place. It’s been hit-or-miss with the Baked NYC books. (This one worked, but when I tried a green tea cupcake recipe, it was a hot mess—I think that’s the problem, actually—too hot here.)

By the way, I have a tip for you if you do try this project yourself (I recommend using some other cupcake/frosting recipe)—I noticed some people complained that the cones fall over during baking or moving between oven and cooling. (You’re supposed to bake them by standing the cones up in a muffin tin.) Use the mini-muffin size instead. The cones fit EXACTLY into those holes and as long as you’re careful, they won’t tip.

Always a bit dubious about recipes I find via Pinterest, but here goes…

A photo posted by sugarandshake (@sugarandshake) on Feb 21, 2015 at 1:46pm PST

Not exactly what I was hoping for, but also not a disaster…

A photo posted by sugarandshake (@sugarandshake) on Feb 21, 2015 at 2:57pm PST

Anyone have a go-to frosting (I’m looking for a good strawberry one) that doesn’t melt in the Island heat?