Cupcakes for Jess!

I helped organize a memorial for a friend today - she was sick for a long time, and her family will have a formal service for her later in the month a few hours from here. But we wanted to do something locally for the people who knew and loved her.

Jess didn't always have a lot of energy, but in 2009/2010 she put together a blog focusing on the cupcakes she created. It was called Have Another Cupcake which was so apt! It was sheer torture to see the plate of cupcakes at her desk, and I bet few people had only one.

When we were planning the memorial several of us said we'd bring cupcakes, and I picked her When the Levee Breaks cupcakes. She was following the Iron Cupcake SF group, and around that time they chose music as a theme. You can read the rest of the story on her blog post with the recipe.

These pictures are of the assembly - I'd already made cupcakes, chocolate pudding, chocolate buttercream frosting, and chocolate cookie crumbs. (Jess didn't supply a frosting recipe so I used one from Joy the Baker.)

To get the pudding in the cupcake, you cut a cone out of each cupcake, and fill the hole with pudding. Then you trim the pointy bit off the cone (converting it into a cap!) and cover up the pudding.

Finally, you frost. Holy moly, amateur alert! I'd never tried doing anything fancy with the frosting bag & tips I got for my birthday. I have a LOT to learn about frosting.

Some strategically sprinkled crumbs helped quite a bit:

And, of course, they were eaten with alacrity. There were four types of cupcake on offer so I think Jessica would have been pleased!

 Thanks Jess. We had a party for you today.