Kitchen Talk: Kat Gordon with Muddy’s
Kat Gordon's Muddy's Bake Shop makes an assortment of fresh and sweet confections daily at their Broad Avenue bake shop. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)
Cake decorating stores are your friend when it’s time to whip up a cake or a bunch of cupcakes, but Kat Gordon at Muddy’s Bake Shop is your very best friend. After some cupcake decorating at my house didn’t go as planned, I called Kat for a quick lesson. She shared her recipe for basic buttercream and gave us some tips.
Use your favorite cake recipe for your cupcakes. Be sure to line your muffin tins with cupcake liners – you can get patterned ones at Mary Carter and other places where you buy cake decorating supplies like Michael’s, Walmart and so on. And don’t overfill them. You can cover up an uneven top with icing, but you don’t want to have to trim down a mushroomed one.
Kat recommends a couple of colors of icing, if you’re letting kids decorate, and lots of sprinkles or other decorations they can scatter on top.
Tips:
- One of the best pieces of advice ever: Cover your work area with a drop cloth to make clean-up a breeze.
- Use organic powdered sugar if you can find it, because it contains tapioca starch instead of corn starch and yields a silkier icing.
- When coloring your icing, use the tiniest bit of food coloring to start – a drop if using liquid, a dab the size of the end of a toothpick if using paste. The colors are deeply pigmented and while you can always add more, you can’t take it out.
Muddy’s Vanilla ButtercreamIngredients Directions In a large bowl, beat butter on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Add vanilla and salt, if using. Gradually add sugar, making sure each batch is thoroughly incorporated before adding more (it helps to reduce the mixer speed to avoid sugar explosions). Beat in a bit of the milk or cream, then use your own judgment. You might not use all of the milk or all of the sugar; often the weather affects how much you need. Get a smooth, spreadable icing. It should be thick enough to hold its shape when spread or piped, but not stiff – sort of like toothpaste. |
Source: Muddy’s Bake Shop
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Jennifer Biggs
Jennifer Biggs is a native Memphian and veteran food writer and journalist who covers all things food, dining and spirits related for The Daily Memphian.
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