Searching for that perfect “Bobcat” red and gray frosting?
Michelle Crook has done the homework and is ready to share a butter cream icing, just in time for
graduation.
“I just thought would be fun to do a Bobcat theme,” said Crook, who will serve mini-Bobcat cupcakes to
guests attending daughter Jessica’s graduation party on May 31.
The perfect BG colors didn’t come from a box or pre-made mix.
Crook said she first tried to do independent colors, a gray and red, but the gray came out too dark.
“I wanted the color to come out gray and red, everything was coming out black and red.”
After a few experimentations, she came up with a striped method that produces the Bowling Green colors
(see recipe).
Crook plans to make 10 dozen of the mini cupcakes for the party, and rent an ice cream machine.
She and husband, Nathan, who is a past Cook’s Corner feature, will team up to make the main meal. Crook
said Nathan will make a barbecued pork and she’s coming up with a shredded chicken sandwich from
scratch. Chips and fruit will round out the party meal.
“We try to come up with fun and good recipes,” Crook said, adding that she does most of the baking and he
does most of the cooking.
Crook plans to start her cupcakes a week in advance and expects they’ll take 15-20 hours to bake and
frost.
Crook, who is a site coordinator for three medical practices, is involved in band boosters and swim club
for Bowling Green schools. She has another daughter, Emily, who is a sophomore.
Nathan has written a book on past and present food traditions titled, “A Culinary History of the Great
Black Swamp: Buckeye Candy, Bratwurst, & Apple Butter.”
Another Bobcat mom, Sandie Smetzer, is also planning some BG-themed treats for daughter Lauren’s party.

Some of her frosted cookies will feature the Bobcat paw print and others will sport a red ‘M’ — for Miami
University, which Lauren will attend.
Smetzer’s specialty dessert, though, seems almost sinfully easy.
“Cake balls” are bite-sized, moist mouthfuls of chocolate and frosting.
Start with a red velvet cake mix (more Bowling Green color), baking it according to directions. After it
cools, crumble the cake into a large mixing bowl. Take half a container of frosting and mix it in with
the crumbled cake, forming moist balls.
Put the balls on a cookie sheet, drizzle them with a little more frosting and refrigerate.
“They are delicious,” Smetzer said.

Butter Cream Frosting
1/2 cup salted butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk (optional)
Cream butter and shortening together until blended well. Add vanilla and then gradually add in powdered
sugar a half-cup at a time until all is incorporated. Add milk as needed for consistency. This recipe
can be doubled easily to make more frosting for large cakes or to frost a lot of cupcakes or cookies.
Use different extract flavors to change the flavor profile.
“Frosting technique”
Crook added Wilton’s black food coloring to her white butter cream frosting to make a “nice gray color.”
She then took a piping bag and, before the frosting was put into it, added Wilton’s red food coloring on
a toothpick and put stripes of red inside the piping bag from the tip of the bag to halfway up. Next,
add the gray frosting to the piping bag. The red from the bag creates stripes on the frosting, producing
“Bobcat” cupcakes.