Recipe Saturday

After making lots of bunny shirts today I needed a change of pace. Kim at TomKat Studio gave her blogger buddies the cutest St. Patrick's Day circles so I made cupcakes so I could use my toppers. Several friends have asked for the frosting recipe that I use for my cupcakes. It is just the regular Butter Cream recipe that my mother always uses for her delicious cakes. Most of the time I double the recipe so that I can put lots of frosting on my cupcakes...the more the better in my opinion. So here is the recipe that I use. For tinting the frosting I use paste food colors. They are by Wilton and can be found at WalMart, Hobby Lobby and most craft stores. It is a thick food coloring and gives a vibrant color to foods. I use a toothpick to add the food coloring to the frosting and keep using a new one until I get the color that I am trying to get. I use a pastry bag and a 1M tip for doing the swirly look that I like. Cupcakes are fun and each one is a little work of art. Almost always I use a box cake mix....chocolate is my favorite. Today I put a Girl Scout Thin Mint in the bottom of each cupcake paper before adding the prepared cake mix. I haven't tasted one yet but it sounded good so we'll see. Enjoy!

Butter Cream Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese

1 stick unsalted butter

16 0z. powdered sugar

1/2-1 tsp. vanilla extract

Let cream cheese and butter soften. Using a mixer, cream the butter, cream cheese and vanilla until smooth and has very few lumps. Add powdered sugar, mixing until creamy. Add desired paste color with toothpick and blend with mixer. Put into pastry bag with tip inserted. Frost cupcakes and eat one!