{Frozen Cupcakes}

Today is the birthday of my friend. She's my incredible, amazing, awesome, geek twin.

Happy Birthday, Darla!!!

I wish I could be there to take you out to lunch and hang out, but a few thousand miles put a little kink in that plan. So... virtual cupcakes it is! Darla is having a Frozen themed birthday this year because she love, love, loves the movie. I knew right away what I was going to do. I was going to make Elsa cupcakes for her!

I knew the cupcakes needed to be a vanilla cake with a vanilla buttercream and they needed to be topped in "ice". First thing I thought of was disco dust. Disco dust, if you've never used it, is AMAZING. You won't be able to believe that it is edible. It's SO sparkly and looks just like a super fine craft glitter. Glitter on cake? I'm in!

Sadly, it does not photograph well. I really wish you could see how it sparkles. Go buy some today, ok?

This needed more than just a little sparkle. I considered white chocolate or fondant snowflakes, but... that wasn't right. Finally, I thought of some cupcakes I'd seen at Halloween. They were gory with broken glass and red sauce, but the idea would work here!

If you've seen the movie (or even the commercials), you've probably seen the ice Elsa creates. That's where this idea came from.

Shards of ice atop pillows of sparkly white buttercream.

I found these shiny "Elsa-ish" cupcake wrappers on Bake It Pretty.

Sugar Glass is just a hard candy, but... since you want this as clear as possible to look like ice, you have to go VERY SLOW. This sugar glass took me an hour. It still has a very light amber tint to it, but it's as good as I could do. If you cook too fast, the sugar will begin to caramelize and you will end up with a very amber glass. We don't want that for our ice! It's definitely not hard to make, it's just tedious and requires a lot of patience.

But............ isn't the effect worth it??

I think so!

However, if you want to make this easier, and I can't blame you if you do, try using purchased rock candy. The look will be different, but the effect will be similar!

A very happy birthday to you, my friend! May it be festive, fanciful, and Frozen.

Love ya!

Tina



Frozen Cupcakes
by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

Vanilla (white) cupcakes (any recipe/box mix will do)
Vanilla Buttercream
Disco Dust edible glitter
sugar glass

Sugar Glass
adapted from All Recipes

1 cup water
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 3/4 cup white sugar
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

Mix ingredients in a medium saucepan; SLOWLY bring to a boil. Use a candy thermometer and boil sugar syrup until temperature reaches 300 degrees (hard ball), stirring often. Keep temperature on low to medium. Do not go over medium. It will thicken as the water evaporates. It will take a long time to reach 300 (up to an hour). When sugar reaches 300 degrees, quickly pour onto a rimmed metal baking pan. Cool until completely hardened. Break as desired.