Hi,
I am interested in developing my skills with cupcakes. My baking skills are limited to baking round or square 3 layer iced cakes (such as german chocolate and chocolate) from traditional recipes. However, I would like to step outside of my comfort zone and get in touch with my creative side.

I've been thinking about starting with the basics like finding and practicing different white cake and chocolate cake recipes (until I find one of each that I'm completely satisfied with) to serve as a basis for practicing different icings and for practicing decorating skills. I also plan to take a cake decorating class once a week to get the ball rolling.

Any suggestions??? Thanks.

cup cakes are so much fun to do I started off with vanilla one and have since just been working my way through my recipe book

I have several different cup cake books but I really like the primrose bakery and the humming bird ones.

are you looking for scratch recipes or ones that add stuff to a mix?

Martha Stewart's cupcake book has a lot of great ideas. I found some of the recipes to be hit or miss but there are still lots of great recipe ideas that you can work with.

I also first perfected my vanilla and then chocolate cupcakes. Then I made chocolate filled, hostess-like cupcakes and then started to play around with different varieties. I think that having the basics down first was helpful for me.

You are so right about Martha Stewart's recipes being hit or miss. But the pictures are pretty and sometimes I copy how they look.

Personally, I pass on ANY recipe from Martha Stewart. When she used to be on TV here, what she did on tv was different from the recipe and neither one ever turned out for her on tv or when I tried it. In her case, thank goodness for commercials! But her ideas are cool.

And as far as flavors, TRY EVERYTHING. Not only flavorings, but colors, and colors with flavors!

I made a Martha Stewart coconut cake and it tasted like I had made it with soap powder. Some of the filling got on the counter and it would not come off!!! I am an experienced scratch baker and I didn't mess up. In that cupcake book, I made the peanut butter and jelly cupcakes and they were so dry. I always underbake and I think there is even sour cream in the batter. The icing was terrible... how do you mess up peanut butter? I don't think they test their recipes, just sell the book or magazine. A less experienced baker might think they just can't bake as well as Martha, so buy more books.

Wow, I thought I was the only one who had problems with Martha's cupcake recipes. I also have her Baking School book, and while the informational material was helpful, the bread recipes were forgettable.

Thanks for all the feedback.

shanney54 ("friend," is that you?) If so, lol! Actually, I prefer recipes from scratch I think that's what ppl want and it makes me feel like a "real" baker (No offense to anyone)
pinkjacs and mar0 thanks for the encouragement and the inspiration (by reflecting back on how you got started)
& thanks to everyone else for warning me about the Martha Stewart recipes and possibly preventing me from becoming discouraged from what could have been "just a bad recipe"

Dang! I made some of Martha Stewart's snickerdoodle cupcakes and they tasted like cinnamon sandpaper!

poor, poor, Martha...

Not all recipes in all recipe books will be a hit with us. Different folks like different things- that is why there is variety. While I may like Martha Stewart- I don't like all of her recipes.My suggestion is to just try all the recipes that you can weed out the bad ones, and then start experimenting with the ones you like... So you find a white cake you like- add some different flavorings to the batter(lemon, almond,starwberry etc.), and then start mixing up the icing flavors- you will be amazed at just how many combinations there are. Then find toppings like candies, or coconut, or nuts, etc.
The main thing is to have fun- and figure out what you like and roll with it! Hope it helps...

Sorry- I forgot to add~~~ check out the recipes right here on CC, and then go to Allrecipes.com, and search for other sites as you need more ideas. If you type in Cupcake on Google, Bing, etc. you will get all kinds of places to look!

Another great place for recipes is foodnetwork.com. The reviews help to steer you to good recipes. Plus, you can find a person who has a similar taste to you... example... Paula bakes super sweet, Ina less sweet.

Yes, friend, it's me. lol Look on the top of the page when you click on the recipes tab, between the home and forum tabs. On the right side of the page you can see the most popular recipes (most saved). Make sure you check on the recipe requests and recipe tips and ideas on the forum. Also, check in cake ideas on the forum. I know that you said that you wanted scratch recipes but on the gourmet flavors thread you will learn a ton! They mostly talk about (and share) white almond sour cream, aka WASC, cake recipes but I love that thread. It's pretty long but if you read through the pages you will learn about using flavored creamers, yogurts, pudding mixes, extracts, etc. to use in your cake/cupcakes.

And do what other have suggested about looking on other websites, too. I found my chocolate frosting recipe on allrecipes.com and found a few on foodnetwork.com Another place that I've started looking at is blogs. There is so much information on them!!! I have my own folder in my favorites to keep them organized! You can find tutorials, recipes, decorating ideas, techniques, new products to try, the list goes on and on. A lot of people from CC have them, too!

HTH

dang i just printed of martha's snickerdoodle recipe and was gonna try it tomorrow, i am gonna need a cinnamon recipe then.....