Cupcake Cafe Cookbook

Warren, who owns the funky Cupcake Cafe in New York City with her husband Michael, presents an array of goods that have made the bakery a reported favorite of such high-profile sweet tooths as Madonna and Mick Jagger. Some are confections not usually made at home. Recipes for three yeast and five cake doughnuts include even Jelly Doughnuts, filled with a pastry tube. There is a wide selection of muffins, Sticky Buns, Brownies and Fruitcake. Eight pies range from a sturdy Apple to a spicy Mincemeat. The collection's centerpieces, however, are cakes, frosted and decorated with butter cream made in a 10-cup batch with four cups of sugar, six eggs and 2 1/2 pounds of unsalted butter (""enough to decorate one large two-layer cake"") and artfully cast in garlands of flowers ranging from roses to hydrangeas. Although Warren and Lilly, who are sisters, offer reassurances, the prospect of dying butter cream in subtly varying hues and then wielding a pastry bag and decorating tips to create complex flower petals and leaves will likely daunt the nonprofessional. Warren suggests that success comes with repeated efforts. Even readers who are not inspired to take pastry bag in hand, will be intrigued by these and other decorating projects, such as drawing pictures on cakes with butter cream and erecting multi-tiered wedding cakes that serve from 20 to 150 people. (Aug.)