Immune Cell Cupcakes

This post will be brief in that it is more about making a treat look good than it is about the actual cooking.


Last week one of my classmates took her prelim, the exam that determines if you are a tried-and-true PhD candidate. She works on immunology, so a friend and I decided to make her some sciency cupcakes. The cakes themselves are Pillsbury Funfetti and the frosting is a basic buttercream with some lemon extract mixed in. After choosing our designs and colors, we went to town. We made T-cells, B-cells, follicular dendritic cells (the giant octopus-thing above), antibodies, and even a little mouse cartoon. I mostly wanted to share this picture because it shows that with a little thought you can impress your friends and family with simple pandering to their tastes. Mom will love a cake with her favorite flowers on it, even if they are a little roughly (read "rustically") done.

Carnitine Cupcakes - 04/21/08

On Monday, I attended my last team meeting with my current research group. I made this wonderful treat for everyone to enjoy.


The cupcakes are basic vanilla cupcakes inside of cupcake wrappers. I had a little difficulty getting them out of the cupcake pan, but it was okay in the end. They also deflated a little bit, so I'm glad I planned the next couple of steps. I prepared a cream cheese frosting for on top. I split the frosting in half, and added grenadine to one half. Grenadine is made from pomegranates and has a nice cherry flavor. It is used in many mixed drinks, including my childhood favorite, Shirley Temples. I piped the grenadine frosting into the cupcakes. No need to empty them out or anything. These cupcakes were light enough that the filling fit just perfectly. Then, to cover up the evidence, I spread the plain frosting on top. That way, the filling remained a surprise.

My research group studies carnitine, a molecule involved with fat metabolism. I wrote the single-letter abbreviation for the elements in carnitine using some decorative frosting. After transport, I assembled a mock-up of the molecule with the cupcakes and cut Twizzlers for the chemical bonds. For the chemists reading this, I admit I did leave off the hydrogen atoms save the one in the hydroxyl group, mostly because the hydrogens would have made the molecule too hard to assemble and I needed 12 cupcakes to feed the entire team. The team raved over the design and flavor of these cupcakes that were, in reality, quite easy to put together. Some people even asked me to make their wedding cakes (quite a tall order I don't want to undertake). It just goes to show you that a little extra effort goes a long way.

FOB Cake - 11/10/2007

Today is my roommate, Val's, birthday and one of her favorite bands is Fall Out Boy (FOB). I decided to make a simple cake to pander to her tastes. The bassist has a tattoo that has become one of the icons for the band (I believe, I may be wrong). My roommate has a window cling version of it on her car, so I thought it would be perfect. Here is a picture of a fan's version of the tattoo:


I made a two layer sheet cake to serve as my canvas. The bottom layer is chocolate and the top layer is vanilla. In between and on top is cream cheese frosting (yes, I cheated and used store-bought frosting but I had difficulties with the frosting that I made). I did have to do some emergency trimming since I did not get the top layer centered on the bottom layer, but no one noticed. To make the insignia, I used black frosting with a fine decorating tip.


While at Michael's, my friend, Kelly, found some Superman cake decorations, so we added them to the cake for extra pandering.


Overall, I am quite happy with how the cake turned out. Val was pleasently surprised, though I did not get to see it since she accidentilly stumbled across it while I was at the store. Surprisingly, the cakes turned out very moist and densely packed. I am very happy with my cake baking skills recently because the majority of my cakes are turning out very moist, almost too moist to do anything with without the chance that they will fall apart.