A dash of this, a slash of that!

Hello Readers!

For the inaugural first blog I have decided to unleash something special on the world. My cupcake recipe. The formula itself is the base and from there I had colours, flavours and decorate them with various sprinkles *cough* Glitter *cough*.  I will then let you in on the process of how I made the cupcakes for Concrete Cow and why I chose the colours and flavours I picked for the RPG themes.

A special shout out goes to Eloise for making the Mandarin Chocolate cupcakes, they sold out before mine did! Thats -amazing-! :)

Gumshoe Themed Cupcakes at Concrete Cow Sept 10th 2017
Bubble Gumshoe, Ashen Stars, Fear Itself

Tiffany's Basic Cupcake Recipe:

• 110g Butter
• 110g Sugar
• 110g Flour
• 2 Medium Eggs
• Dash of Vanilla Extract
• Bake at Gas Mark 5 for 15 to 25 minutes, check they are done by lightly touching the tops. When they spring back and aren't jiggly anymore they are done!
• For extra special cupcakes had a touch of the American Brand 'Jello Instant Vanilla pudding', about a teaspoon or less. This will give the cupcakes a slightly more moist texture.

Tiffany's Basic Buttercream Icing:

• 200g Icing Sugar
• 90g Butter
• Add 1/4 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
• Add a teaspoon of milk until icing is as firm or as wet as you desire it to be.
• I find that a hand mixer (however messier), makes the icing smoother and more whipped. A texture I tend to favour when I am not in a crunch to make a large batch for an event.

Now that i've bared my soul to you let's learn why I choose the colours and flavours that I did for the RPG event. Easiest answer, I do it on the fly... but not without some consideration. 

Bubble Gum Blue batter goes into the cake tin

For Bubble Gumshoe I really wanted to portray the emotions and memories that popping gum in high school brings back to me. The smell of sweet cotton candy flavoured Bubble yum before the teacher takes it away. I have not played the system yet, but it revolves around the social circles of teenagers and the excitement of scooby-do. If you liked Scream Queens there is a chance you could grow to like this RPG and craft it into whatever setting you like.

I choose a blue cake batter and candy floss flavouring to invoke that sweet scent of newly unwrapped bubblegum. The flavour is a favourite in our house because it is sweet without being overwhelmingly too sickly sweet. The blue was simply playful, whenever I think of the game it invokes bright colours, the sounds of locker doors and at least one person walking around with bright blue hair (we could get away with it in America, sometimes).

The topping was a mix of white and pink swirls. Candy Floss is generally sold at carnivals in blue, white and pink. Earlier in the afternoon I picked up hot pink edible glitter and bright green, it really came out fabulous. Matthew and myself went out to look for bubblegum toppers, we both decided it would be too difficult to eat at the gaming table. The bubblegum ball on top is Maoam Pinballs. Yum!

Ashen Stars was next on the list, once we figured out the Gumshoe Theme. 

"Out here in the Bleed, you’re the closest thing there is to a higher authority. You’re Licensed Autonomous Zone Effectuators —”lasers” for short. You’re the seasoned freelancers that local leaders call whenever a situation is too tough, too baffling, or simply too weird for them to handle. It’s a dirty job, but it pays. And sometimes, you get to make a difference."

I do have a confession to make, I've not yet played this RPG *hangs head*, but I am a newbie to tabletop gaming so there are tons I have not played yet. But it is gumshoe and it is listed as being a really weird space game, two things I can admit to being interested in.

So how to you make a cupcake that represents outer space and "The Bleed" without going over the top and really weird? You ask for advice. Specifically one of the writers and his counterpart, Ken and Robin. They've done an episode about this game, serious, it has won a silver Ennie!

Ken: "Gray cake would be narsty. German chocolate maybe for the stellar rubble effect? R is expert here." 
Robin: "It's set in a sector called The Bleed, so Red Velvet."

Outcome: Yeah... Sorry boys, I tried. The outcome was messy, the red food colour I have did not stick and in fact bled all over me, the kitchen... the washer... the floor...

What I ended up with was grey cocoa cupcakes baked with chocolate morsels inside and chocolate sprinkles outside. As the red would not stick I thought I could mix a streak of red icing through the purple icing and miscalculated the growing heat of the kitchen versus butter.

Overall they were quite tasty and somewhat popular. There are no mistakes in nature, most universes are slanted and covered in glittery starlight.

Finally, the third flavour...

Fear Itself. A dark chocolate black rose with blood drops on a peppermint cupcake, I have played in this RPG setting myself and hope to co-write some scenarios with my husband in the future. I felt it needed a certain sort of love...

"Fear Itself plunges ordinary people into a disturbing contemporary world of madness and violence —and inexorably draws them into confrontation with creatures of the Outer Dark, a realm of alien menace. GMs can re-create all the shudders and shocks of the horror genre at their table, whether they use the game’s distinctive mythology or one of their own choosing."

The third flavour was a mystery until an hour before I was going to frost it. I wanted a third RPG in my cupcake collection, but I wasn't quite certain where I was going with it.

I read an article online that explained making black roses. I've had the icing tip for awhile now and have been a bit too nervous to use it. A bit of an expert tool in my eyes.

I made the roses out of white buttercream mixed with a few ounces of dark 85% baking chocolate chunks. I'm not afraid of burning chocolate, it comes naturally to me... so why not.

The dark of the chocolate was darkened, but my black was not black enough (you need extra black food colouring gel). I went with it anyway and wasn't terribly put off by the colour. The idea that I am about to bite into what looks like a black rose and taste a random flavour was exactly the sort of fear I wanted to invoke, and it worked out.

The flavouring in the cake was a strong peppermint and I decided to go with a 'normal' flavour icing to offset how powerful the taste was. In the end I did regret not buying those edible eyeballs, but the rose has given me an idea for a great Vampire: The Masquerade cupcake!

I think Simon and Cat from Pelgrane Press was pleased in the end, they both got a taste of the line and gave their seal of approval!

I hope you all enjoyed this inside article about the conception of RPG cupcakes. We will be doing more in the future so keep an eye out on this page! Thank you to everyone who worked so hard at Concrete Cow and Thank You to all of our friends who came out to play!