looking for a gender reveal idea? i have you covered!
so...lots of weeks ago (over a month) i had a little gender reveal get-together.

i called around to some bakeries in boise looking for the perfect place to make my perfect cupcakes filled with pink or blue frosting.

unfortunately, i ran into more than one problem:

1 | each of the bakeries i called didn't want to make the cupcakes. they tried to talk me into a cake instead.

no bakery, i don't want a cake. i want cupcakes. thanks.

2 | i wanted said cupcakes to be filled with pink or blue frosting so that when everybody bit into their cupcake at the same time we would all find out together. super fun, right? well, once i got the bakery on board with the idea of cupcakes they didn't want to fill it with frosting, they wanted to food color the actual cake part of the cupcake.

no bakery, this won't work, because then the cake will be visible and give away the gender before anyone bites into them.

3 | the bakeries i called wanted to charge over $3 for each cupcake! well, at that point, i had just had it. i thought to myself...i'll just make the damn cupcakes myself...and they'll probably taste better. so i did.

my sister was visiting from chico so we concocted a plan - we would make two batches of cupcakes. one batch would be filled with blue frosting filling and the other with pink. we would then deliver the envelope that had the gender sealed inside with the cupcakes to the restaurant. a trusted staff member would open the envelope and then display the correct color of frosting-filled cupcakes.

does that all make sense? ya follow me?


step 1 | the batter

we got busy making the cupcakes. i literally took the easiest route here. i took a basic, vanilla box cake and jazzed it up a bit by using butter instead of oil. milk instead of water. and i added two additional eggs from what the recipe called for. i found this idea on pinterest a few years ago and the recipe hasn't failed me yet. it's delicious every time. 

i've said it once, i'll say it again...do not over bake your baked goods.


i ordered these tulip cups on amazon. i love the fancy they add to a simple cupcake.

step 2 | the garnish

then we got to work on the garnish. i knew that i wanted my frosting to be an orange flavor. there is just something about citrus that makes me feel summery...for obvious reasons. it made perfect sense to use an orange zest as the garnish.

we candied it ourselves by zesting large strips. then you boil it twice in sugar water and let it dry. it's quite the process, but totally worth the work. they tasted delicious! we followed this recipe found on epicurious.


step 3 | the filling

while the orange zests were drying we whipped up some almond-flavored, whipped cream frosting.

please no judgement when i reveal to you how i make this swoon-worthy frosting. it's absolutely delicious and i've definitely never heard a complaint...just recipe requests.

ingredients

  • 1 tub of cool-whip (my sister is convinced you could use whipping cream and confectioners sugar...and i bet you can i just haven't tried it.)
  • 1 small box of vanilla, instant pudding
  • 1/2 the milk the recipe calls for
  • whip on high for two minutes or until it begins to stiffen
  • 1/2 tsp almond extract
  • red food coloring to the desired shade of pink
  • blue food coloring to the desired shade of blue
we cored the centers of all the cupcakes and ate ALL the cores. literally. i felt sick.

then we filled each middle with the desired color of frosting. for picture purposes...and to potentially throw off all guesses, i'll use the pink pictures. (plus the pink frosting photographed better.
 step 4 | the frosting

wouldn't you know it...we used the exact same recipe as the filling...except we swapped out the almond extract for orange extract and nixed the food coloring...for obvious reasons.

at this point, as i was piping the frosting on to the cupcakes my sister and i decided it was time to get in an argument.

she thought i was piping too much frosting. i argued you can NEVER have too much frosting.

since i'm pregnant and quick to anger...i clearly won that argument. plus, i mean really, can you EVER have too much frosting? i mean...i guess you can, but i think the evidence shows...there was not too much frosting on these cupcakes. please weigh in...

step 5 | the finishing touches

our final step was to cut thin slices of strawberries and top each of the cupcakes with a slice and a zest.

beautiful, right?

luckily, there were about two dozen of these cupcakes left over and i'm completely comfortable sharing that i ate 95% of them.

i'd make this recipe again and again and twice on sunday.

enjoy!