Day Twenty Three: Everything's Coming Up Roses: Piped-Rose Cupcakes

My sweet, oldest daughter is turning three-years old on Sunday. :tear:  Our family is going to celebrate with her on Sunday, but tomorrow (Friday), she is going to celebrate with her class at school.

A quick portrait of my oldest daughter (aka the middle child):  like most little girls her age, she moonlights as a princess, but she is really (really) into clothes, specifically accessories. (Her mother likes an accessory or two so she comes by it honestly.)  Everyday, she jazzes up her school uniform with (faux) cocktail rings, bracelets, headbands, or a particularly snazzy pair of pink-glitter cat-eye sunglasses. On the weekends, she will change several times a day, for no particular reason.  One of her favorite accessories is a headband with a pink fabric rose that rivals the size of her head.

For the party tomorrow,  I'm bringing cupcakes in lieu of a cake. When I saw Martha's Piped-Rose Cupcakes, it reminded me of her ridiculously large beloved headband.  These would be perfect.

Since I clearly have a gift for creating flowers out of ribbon, why not icing?

The cupcakes call for Swiss Meringue Buttercream icing, which I will preface with these words:  four sticks of butter.

Thereby destined to be delicious, it required the use of the mixer (power tool!), which brought my son running to help.

Five-year old son running the mixer with glee (you'll have to take my word on the glee part);

Making the flowers required the use of a Pastry Nail, which I had never heard of before.  A pastry nail looks like something they borrowed from a medieval torture device:

My husband actually asked if I had found it in his toolbox.

Also new to me:  putting icing into a pastry bag.  If you've never done this, imagine trying to dress an uncooperative toddler, who has also been slathered in baby oil.   It was a messy prospect.

Using pastry nail to begin flower:

 First petal:

Several petals:

 Completed flower:

Did I mention this was my first try??  :beaming:  If there were such a thing as a Nobel Prize in Icing Roses, I'm pretty sure I would win.

Cupcakes, which looked marginal at best:

Flower after it had chilled in the refrigerator:

Completed, piped-rose cupcakes:

I was expecting the results to look like a chernobyl flower garden, but they look great--more than satisfactory for a bunch of two- and three-year olds who will likely lick off the icing at first chance.

You can't see me, but I'm dancing around my kitchen with an imaginary Soul Train.  :RaiseTheRoof:

Happy (early) birthday, to my little fashionista!