cupcakes!

For my brother's birthday, I made cupcakes instead of cake. Last year's cake tasted fine, but had structural issues. My plan for this year was to make snowballs - trim the cupcakes, then coat them with frosting and roll them in coconut. The cake recipe I used is too light and fluffy, though, so I had to settle for icing only the tops. His favorite is swiss meringue, which I make only for his birthday cakes - it's like high-grade marshmallow fluff. Good stuff. I usually get much more volume out of it, but I was at my sisters house and CSI was on, so they wouldn't let me use the electric mixer until the episode was over. There I was with egg whites and sugar in a bain marie, whisking away as fast (and as quietly) as possible by hand for almost 8 minutes (yes I timed it). Not planning to do that again.

Chocolate cake, raspberry filling,
swiss meringue frosting, toasted coconut.

The Teen is particularly proud of this photo, as you can
see the toasted coconut fly as he blows out the candles.