Cupcake
Jennifer IserlohAs a kid, I was possessed by a raging sweet tooth. When I finally kicked that addiction, I thought my days of lavish baked goods were behind me, but it turns out that's not the case. However, now I'm not sitting down to eat a bunch in one sitting -- I'm a slave to making them.

With 12 friends who all have birthdays in May, this is the busiest baking month for me. The requests for my tender, moist, yellow cake layered thick with dark chocolate ganache, toasted coconut or dulce de leche filling start coming in around the end of April.

So much of baked goods' appeal hinges on their visual charm. Since my Granny passed on her cake decorating kit to me this year, I thought I'd see if I could remember what she taught me, even though I'm not an ace with the pastry bag like she is. I found that decorating cakes isn't hard, and you don't have to be a pro like Granny to make something simple and gorgeous for the birthday guy or gal.

It just takes some inexpensive decorating tips and bags -- about $5 for a small set. I avoid using artificial tints to color my icing because some food coloring is derived from coal tar and is suspected of causing hyperactivity in children. Yellow dye No. 5 has been thought to worsen asthma symptoms and in the 1970s the FDA banned red dye No. 2 after some studies found that large doses could cause cancer in rats.

Still, everyone I know, including myself, loves colorful, decorative icings so I've come up with ways to safely tint frosting without using a lot of artificial flavorings or colorings.


Get the Skinny Chef's recipes for:
Yellow Cake
Light Cream Cheese Icing
Chocolate Ganache