Sugar Icing - Royal Icing

I've decided that if I've ever wanted to decorate my cakes with sugar icing, I'd buy them off the shelf. Mostly because my hand is really shaky. Even so I'd like to think that that was a pretty decent rose. Even if it's green.

Here's another alien-looking sugar flower. In case you can't tell what it is, it's supposed to be Mums. It looks unfinished at the top but yeah, Mums. It's in blue because I was using leftover icings - another reason why I will be buying and not making sugar flowers anymore.

Above are Cadena de Amors. I haven't seen the real flowers so I wouldn't really know if they indeed look like stringed beads. And they dont probably came in blue either. And finally flowers that looks like flowers! These are wild roses.

Ube Cupcakes

That is what cooked ube (ubi or purple yam) looks like. If you think they are a little hairy you should have seen them before they underwent a massive hair loss treatment courtesy of me right before they went to the pot to be boiled. Really, really hairy. It took forever to cook. Hairy ube = not good!

So anyway I made ube cupcakes. The rest I made into a halaya for future use. We originally made this in class as a cake but I didn't want to wait that long and instead pour them into muffin pans lined with cupcake paper.

Ingredients
2 1/2 c. cake flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. oil
1/2 c. water or ube broth
6 eggs, separated
1/2 tsp. ube flavoring
1/2 tsp. ube coloring
1 c. mashed ube
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

Procedure
Shift all dry ingredients in to bowl (use only 3/4 sugar), make a well in the center and dump in the liquid ingredients (oil, water, eggyolks and flavoring) and mix well. Add the mashed ube and blend well.

Make a meringue with the eggwhites, cream of tartar, and remaining sugar and fold it into the batter. Pour into a 9x3 pan lined with a wax paper and bake at 350F for 40 minutes or until done.

The ube flavoring can be substitued with vanilla if it's not available. The ube coloring is there because purple yams aren't always purple. I've seen almost white ube before. Omit it at your own preference. I would served cupcakes this with 7 minute frosting and a dollop of halaya on top. The cake I would serve with a ube filling.