Chef’s Corner: Icing Queen

LARGO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- When most people ice a cupcake, they just slap on the icing with a knife. It may taste the same, but it doesn’t look as good. One expert shares how easy it is to impress your guests this spring with beautiful flower cupcakes. Recipes follow report!

Bonnie Yarbrough, owner of Celebration Cakes, can create just about anything with icing. Her seashell cake is the most popular, and the wedding dress cake is the most talked about.

“My forte was to be a bilingual secretary or to work in the financial field, which I did, and I was very successful, but I was also very unhappy,” says Yarbrough. So, she turned to baking.

Today she shares her secrets on decorating a cupcake: First she whips meringue and cold water to make the frosting. Then she adds shortening and sugar -- a little bit at a time. “If you added all of the sugar at one time all the particles would not get moist, and you would have sugar crystals,” explains Yarbrough.

Next, she adds the flavorings: vanilla, almond, butter and her secret ingredient, crème bouquet. Now it’s time to decorate. “A good decorating frosting will hold its shape, it won’t droop,” she says.

Food coloring is then added to the icing. The key is to not mix the color completely and mix several colors in the same bag. “I was being real lazy one day, and I got tired of mixing this bag and that bag, so I just started putting the icings in the same bag, and it was a miracle,” Yarbrough says.

The result is a beautiful flower cupcake. She garnishes it with leaves, and the bouquet is complete. It’s the reaction from her clients that keeps this self-taught icing queen going. Yarbrough says, “I’ve had people cry, I've had people hug me, and I have thousands of thank you letters.” A sweet reward for a sweet profession.

To make the flower, Yarbrough used a standard 2D tip that you can find at any craft or baking store. She says when decorating it’s important to make sure the bag is not too full or too empty, so your hand can apply the right amount of pressure.

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Bonnie Yarbrough's Recipes: