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Big Black Dog: Dotted Swiss...Fabric or Frosting?

April 19, 2008

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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6 Comments:

Blogger OhioMom said...

Love the cupcakes ! They look good enough to eat :)

April 20, 2008 at 4:47 PM  
Blogger MrsPacNW said...

Michelle!!!!!! those are adorable!
I really love the concept and the flavor combinations you went with! Great great job!

April 20, 2008 at 4:54 PM  
Blogger Michelle said...

Well thanks Linda and Terri!!!

Actually I made Joe 2 varieties of cupcakes this year. The first one chocolate with cinnamon meringue frosting, he did not like. They were delicious and I ate all the them. He now claims that he does not like meringue.

I've had this idea for the Dotted Swiss for a long time now but just never got around to doing it....to many other ideas got in the way. I do love polka dots though and think I may continue this theme.

April 20, 2008 at 5:05 PM  
Blogger Lucy..♥ said...

Could they look any more
d e l i c i o u s ! !

April 22, 2008 at 9:07 AM  
Blogger My Sweet & Saucy said...

These look simply lovely!

May 14, 2008 at 9:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

They look lovely :)

June 26, 2008 at 10:42 AM  

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