Kid's Recipes | Dressing Up a Cupcake For the Holidays

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Dressing Up a Cupcake For the Holidays
by Susie Tilton

Cupcakes are everywhere right now and some can fetch a pretty penny. There is no reason you can't make amazing cupcakes that rival the fancy cupcake bakeries without spending hours in the kitchen or spending a fortune on supplies.

Whether you make your cake from scratch or a box, remember that the dense cake is better than a fluffy cake. Look for decorative cupcake liners. If you are making chocolate cupcakes, try black or brown liners, or silver foil. The light colored liners will look dirty with a chocolate cupcake. Use the light and bright colors for a white or yellow cake, and keep in mind your frosting colors.

The frosting is really what sells at the fancy bakeries. Making your own buttercream is very easy and tastes so much better than canned frosting. This basic buttercream recipe can be altered to various flavors and colors.

Basic Buttercream

2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
6 cups confectioner's sugar
5 Tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla (use clear imitation vanilla for pure white frosting)
for chocolate frosting, add 8 oz. melted unsweetened chocolate

Mix the butter until smooth with electric mixer. Add sugar and salt and add the milk slowly (and chocolate if using it) and beat until smooth and fluffy. Just remember that a little more powdered sugar will thicken and a little more milk will thin it out. If you want to color a basic buttercream, look for gel food colors for the truest colors.

If you don't have pastry bags and tips, you can put the frosting in a large zip plastic bag and snip the corner for a rounded smooth flow, or simply frost the cupcake with a spatula. Tall mounds of frosting are the trend and a few sprinkles around the edge look great. Look for sprinkles and jimmies in every color imaginable!

Finally, a little something to top it off makes it truly unique. No grocery store plastic picks or rings. Many of the bakeries use fondant in various shapes, but fondant is expensive and can be a lot of work to roll out. In just minutes you can have a custom made top that tastes good too. Using a bag of white chocolate chips, put about 1/3 of the bag in a small bowl and microwave for 30 seconds at a time.

Stir between, and when it is smooth, spread over a piece of wax paper on a flat surface. Don't spread the chocolate too thin. Using cookie cutters, cut individual shapes into the warm chocolate and apply sprinkles if desired. Then chill in fridge for a few minutes before you remove the cookie cutter and allow to finish firming. It takes maybe 5 minutes. Melt more of the chips as you need them.

You can cut out stars, trees, whatever, for the holidays, bunnies for Easter, free form ghosts for Halloween, flowers, any shape you like, even initials. If you make a mistake, they can be re-melted as long as there are no sprinkles on them. Don't be surprised when you're asked the name of the bakery where you shop!

More You Might Like:
Turkey Cupcakes for Thanksgiving
Cute Carrot Cupcakes for Easter
Valentine Cupcakes
St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes

About the Author:
Susie Tilton is a blogger from Tennessee. You can check out her blog at Sweetie Petitti.

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