Dotted Swiss...Fabric or Frosting?

Any one remember the sheer, cotton Dotted Swiss fabric?

From the American Heritage On-line Dictionary: A sheer, crisp cotton fabric, embellished with woven, flocked, or embroidered dots.




I've always loved Dotted Swiss and it is having somewhat of a comeback although the fabric is not quite the same. I've started looking for some vintage Dotted Swiss fabric but in the mean time I made some Dotted Swiss Cupcakes! My cupcakes are doing double duty, first for my husband's birthday and then as my entry in Cupcake Hero's Earth Day themed event. My cupcakes represent the 4 Natural Elements, Earth, Wind, Fire and Ice.

For the marbled cupcakes I used a Vanilla Cake and a Chocolate Cake recipe which can be easily found on the internet so I'm not going to repost them here. And I tried to make each cupcake unique and so marbled them differently alternating the Vanilla and Chocolate batters. It was fun marbling the cupcakes. Since I used 2 different recipes for the marbling I did get cracks but these will be covered with frosting in the final product. No harm done! The marbled cupcake represents "Earth" the first element.



To add a little something extra special to the cupcakes I stuffed them with a whole strawberry. Not easy to find small berries this time of year so you may need to pare the berry down a bit or else make jumbo cupcakes. The strawberry represents "fire" the 3rd element.


It is very easy to stuff the cupcakes. I use my vegetable peeler and just carve a hole in the center of each cupcake and insert the berry. Do be careful that you do not puncture the bottom of the cupcake!



For the Frosting I used several different recipes which is pretty common for me! I love to experiment with frostings. To top the cupcake I used Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting swirled to represent the "Wind" the 2nd element. And for "Ice" the 4th element I have dots of my feathered pineapple frosting.



Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Recipe adapted from Cooks.com

3 pkg. (3 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/3 c. butter, softened
5 c. confectioners sugar
1 c. Hershey's cocoa
5 to 7 tbsp. light cream

Blend cream cheese and butter in large mixer bowl. Combine confectioners sugar and cocoa; add alternately with cream to cream cheese mixture. Beat to spreading consistency.

Pineapple Feathered Frosting
Recipe Adapted in the kitchen of Big-Black-Dog

1/4 c softened cream cheese
1/4 c softened butter
1 c. 100% Unsweetened Pineapple Juice
2 c powdered sugar

Over medium heat in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan reduce 1 c. Pineapple Juice to about 2 TBL. The juice reduces very quickly so do not leave your kitchen! When the juice is significantly reduced cool to room temperature.

Cream together cream cheese and butter. Add 1 tsp of the reduced pineapple juice and blend well. Gradually add 2 c. of powdered sugar. When the frosting is completely mixed taste it and if you think you need more pineapple flavoring add a drop or 2 more and taste again and repeat if necessary.

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