Post-Christmas Christmas Cupcakes

Last night was the Christmas celebration in Florida with Daniel's family. For the occasion, we decided to make Red Velvet cupcakes and buttercream icing out of the Wilton Cupcake Fun! book Dan's sister got me for my birthday. In it, we found some really cute ideas to decorate cupcakies like ornaments and snowflakes. We decided to do some the fancy pretty way, and some just frosted regularly. The recipe that follows is the Red Velvet recipe and Buttercream icing from this book...

Red Velvet Cupcakes
2 1/2 C A.P. flour
2 Tbl cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 C butter, soft
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp red food coloring
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 C buttermilk
2 Tbl water
1 1/2 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp baking soda.

*Preheat to 350. Spray cupcake pans with non-stick spray.
*In medium bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set Aside.
*In large bowl, cream butter and sugar.
*Add eggs, food coloring, and vanilla. Mix well.
*Alternately, add flour mixture and buttermilk to butter mixture.
*Add water, mix well.
*In a small bowl, pour vinegar into baking soda, and stir it gently into the cupcake batter.
*Pipe into cupcake tin.
*Bake 20 min or until toothpick tests clean.
*Cool 5-8 min in the pans, then remove to let cool completely.
Makes ~22 cupcakes.

Buttercream Icing
1/2 c solid veg. shortening
1/2 c butter, soft
1 tsp vanilla extract (clear, if possible)
4 c sifted confectioner's sugar (~1lb)
2 Tbl milk (but we had to use an extra 3/4 tsp)
Food coloring, if desired

*Cream shortening and butter.
*Add vanilla, mix well.
*Add sugar, one cup at a time, beating on medium speed. Scrape down side of bowl often.
*Add milk, beating at medium speed until icing is light and fluffy. Add coloring if desired.
Keep if refrigerator and rewhip before using (if not used immediately).
Makes 3 Cups.





For the Ornament cupcakes, the book says to cut a large sized marshmallow in half (so you still have a circle, just not as tall) and attach to the side of the cupcake with royal icing. It also gives patterns in the back of the book for hangers, on which you put a piece of wax paper, and pipe the design with royal icing and let dry. The recipe for royal icing that the book provides was very difficult to work with - very very thick. Next time, I'd probably either use my own recipe or add a lot more liquid. Or maybe even use white chocolate. Our hangers wound up too thin and brittle to be stuck into the marshmallow to be the ornament hanger, but even without them, the cupcakes still turned out adorable and definitely looked like ornaments...







Cute, right!? I'll definitely be using this book again in the future, it has a ton of really really cute decorating ideas.
The next thing we tried from the book was to use the patterns in the back to make a snowflake that would be stuck into the frosting of the blue cupcakes, but since we didn't use a thick enough line of royal icing, they broke before we could get them off the wax paper. :(



I think with a more liberal use of royal icing, the patterns would have worked well. We'll definitely be trying them again. The recipe for the cupcake was very good, we are going to be trying to other recipes in that book as well. And the buttercream was a hit - perfect consistency, sweet but not too sweet.

We got this cute little cupcake stand yesterday, and lots of baking goodies. Soon on here there will be some miniature things, and cupcakes in stands, and things covered in fondant. Very exciting! Merry late Christmas everyone!