Staff writer
Since a young age, friends and family of Rachael Thurston have found her in the kitchen baking.
“My mom makes cakes so I learned from her,” Thurston said. “I’ve been baking since I was old enough to help mom.”
Around age 12, Thurston started experimenting with her own recipes to make her favorite thing, cupcakes.
“I’ve made them for pretty much everything,” Thurston said.
She’s even making more than 200 for her own wedding June 22.
“My style is vintage so they will be pastel colors and I’ll probably use some fondant flowers and sprinkles,” she said. “I love sprinkles.”
Thurston also supplied several dozen intricately decorated cupcakes for Marion City Library’s “Wizard of Oz” children’s celebration.
“That was probably the first time I’ve done such intricate fondant work,” she said. “It was a fun topic to experiment with different decorations.”
Cupcakes included an upside-down cupcake with the wicked witch’s feet hanging over the edge to look like she had just been smashed by the cupcake. Others included a field of poppies and a pink frosted Glenda with a pink pearl.
Thurston also made cupcakes with mini-book decorations for the library’s birthday celebration, but her favorite thing to do is share them with friends and family.
“I love to decorate them, but my favorite is just when we grab frosting and make our own,” Thurston said.
She uses the frost-your-own-cupcake technique when leading story time.
“The kids love them, and like to decorate them and it saves me a bunch of work,” Thurston said. “I try to bring them at least once during the summer.”
Of all the recipes she’s tried, Thurston said her favorite was a root beer float cupcake.
“I like testing recipes on family because they’re honest about how they taste and look,” she said.
Thurston said it would be fun to own her own cupcakery and bakery in the future, but for right now she’s content sharing her sweet concoctions with family, friends, and anyone who asks.