Calendar Cupcakes: 2012

Pink Frosting Cupcakes

Cupcake Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Cupcake Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Place backing cups in muffin/cupcake pan.
3. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.
4. Beat with an electric mixer (2 to 3 minutes).
5. OR with hand tools until smooth.
6. Spoon batter into cups. 
7. Bake for 20 minutes.
8. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing cupcakes from pan, and allow to fully cool on a rack.

My Opinion

Firstly, when I made these I didn't have the patience to also make the frosting, for which you will find the recipe for at the bottom of this post. 

(I substituted Duncan Hines' Frosting Creations in Cherry Vanilla, bought with a coupon at my commissary.)

Secondly, don't bother making these. The cake was semi-crumbly and dry, cheap-tasting. 

The best part of it was the frosting. If you've never tried Frosting Creations before, I highly recommend going with the Cherry Vanilla flavor mix first. It's darn delicious. Reminiscent of maraschino cherries. My DH complained it was too sweet though, so beware. 

Speaking of which, I'm going to try the Cherry Vanilla Malt-Cakes recipe listed on the Duncan Hines' website later this month (with homemade cake mix, of course), sometime before Christmas. Supposedly they taste like old fashioned malt-shakes!

The Frosting Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
• pinch of salt
• pink food dye
• silver balls

Directions

1. Cream the confectioners' sugar, butter and salt with an electric mixer.
2. OR with hand tools until smooth.
3. Add a few drops of food dye and mix well.
4. Spread the frosting liberally onto the cooled cupcakes and sprinkle with silver balls.