Well, well, well. Wednesday, we meet again! But today is not just any Wednesday, darlings. This is my last Wednesday as a twenty-three-year-old! To celebrate, I bring you cupcakes. You may remember these back from Magical Simplicity’s Birthday, the geo rock candy neon cupcakes.
Now, looking back, geo (as in rocks, as in the building blocks of our planet earth) & neon (as modern day as it goes) don’t exactly go together. But life doesn’t exactly go together either. (Read: I stumbled upon neon food coloring in the store & instantly wanted to make everything in my life neon.)
Anywho – this was my first attempt at these super fun cupcakes. I used boxed white cake mix from Betty Crocker & my icing was just your run-of-the-mill cream cheese icing from the cake aisle. What makes these babies special is the topping. Rock Candy.
That’s right, rock candy.
Where do you even get rock candy? I asked myself the same question. Though I’m confident Minges downtown could have helped my cause, I was in a hurry (per usual). SO, my very original Google search for:“Where can I buy rock candy in Florence, Kentucky” lead me to Cracker Barrel.
Guys, they have really cute stuff. Like, unexpectedly. Six boxes of rock candy & one cute compass coffee mug later, I was en route home.
ROCK GEO NEON TOPPING | YOU WILL NEED
|1| Vodka + Food coloring
|2| Loose Rock Candy
|3| Mini Strainer + Parchment Paper + Cookie Sheet
|1| Pour a shallow layer of vodka in a cereal bowl. I cut it with a little water, just because. Add your preferred food coloring drops. Stir. You can do as many colors as you want! I ended up mixing a bowl for all 4 colors in the neon box.
|2| Divide rock candy amongst bowls to preference. It only needs a few second to hold the color, but the longer you keep it in the darker your candy will be.
|3| Dump bowls individually through a mini strainer (is that the right word? Eh, you know what I’m talking about.. those little tiny-holed ones). Spread out in single layer on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.
Let dry for one day. Then start topping!
I went a little overboard with the neon (dyed the batter, the icing + the rocks). As my friend CincinNatalie described it, "discovering neon food coloring really makes you wonder why the primary colors exist."
So fun, right! You could also use this topping on sugar cookies, or cake, or donuts (what?!?). Or, I feel like it's just a good recipe to have for life, really. It’s that much fun.
Can’t wait to see what y’all come up with!