I have seen more and more cupcakes lately (on cakecentral, in grocery stores, etc.) that seem to have the icing/frosting piled high on top of the cupcake. I know this seems like a silly question, but do these just have a ton of icing on them? Seems to me I would need an awful lot of frosting to pull off a batch of these. I'm wondering if the frosting has been somehow "aerated" or maybe whipped with cream. Does anyone have any ideas for me?

King Arthur Flour has a great tutorial in their Baker's Banter


http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2011/01/31/hats-off-to-chocolate-hi-hat-cupcakes/

Mine go pretty high, but I don't start at the edge either. I end up using a little more, but not too much. I go though about 3.5 to 4 cups of icing for 24 cupcakes. I just swirl them up and away they go!

Yep, they have a ton of frosting on them! There's a bakery in my town that piles the frosting on higher than the cake part....and they charge $6 for them! They look really decadent and tempting, but I hear a lot of their customers complain that they couldn't even eat half of one and feel its a waste of money to pay for all that frosting that just gets tossed in the trash. A friend who used to work for them said they go through twice as much frosting as I do!

Personally, I don't care for THAT much frosting....and I LOVE frosting! For me, the frosting and cake should be in balance, complementing each other. Of course, it's all personal preference...I have as many people request the "end piece" of cake or a piece with lots of decoration/frosting as I have people request very little frosting.

I love frosting. I always have the corner peice, and always eat the leftover after I'm done a cake. Of course, I also put on the pounds that go with it!

I too, have seen the gigantic mounds of frosting on top of cupcakes...Gigi's does this with their cupcakes...I think it's too much and I LOVE frosting. I use around 4 cups of frosting per 24 standard sized cupcakes.

Johnnycakes1966, I'm with you... balance.