We've Got Spirit

Not everything I bake comes out perfect the first time.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I had quite a devil of a time getting the right blue for my baby blue velvet cupcakes.  While I experimented, I ended up with two batches of unusable cupcakes.  I still haven't figured out a way to use the gray ones, frankly you can't just dig into a black salad, you've got to play with it a little.  But for the navy blue ones, I decided to make a special little treat for Hubby.

Hubby is a huge Chicago Bears fan, and in honor of his team, I salvaged my navy blue (here they picture almost black) cupcakes by decorating them in honor of his favorite team.  The possibilities are pretty endless when it comes to decorating with team colors.  Next time I make a standard red velvet, I may reserve a few to decorate with yellow and make myself some Redskins cupcakes. 

We start tonight with blue velvet cupcakes made with this recipe.  To recap, I used 1/2 teaspoon of cornflower blue gel food coloring to get this dark of a blue (and in case you have some desire to make a gray cupcake, I used 1/8 teaspoon of cornflower blue gel food coloring and added it to the dry ingredients that included 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder.)

Once the cupcakes are cooled, I took the remainder of my cream cheese frosting I had made for the baby blue velvet cupcakes and swirled it on using a Wilton 2A tip.  For the record, the gray cupcakes went into the freezer. 

Next I melted some orange candy melts and using a spoon, drizzled it over the frosting.  I had originally planned to draw out a little Bears C, but it was nearing 11pm and I wanted to get them done. 

So there you have it.  A nice little surprise treat for Hubby to take advantage of some failed experiments.  I tell you what, it doesn't matter what color they are, these still taste delicious.  And since the orange drizzle dries hard, it gives the cupcake a nice texture and flavor addition. 

And I think they are pretty cute too.  Next time you have a booster club bake sale or a secret sister present to bake for, try this little trick to turn ordinary cupcakes into a little bit of team spirit.