A very special sister-in-law had a milestone birthday, and her dear and thoughtful children threw her a surprise celebration.  I offered to help with dessert, and here was their request:

Betty Crocker white and chocolate fudge cake mixes yielded 36 cupcakes.  I followed the back-of-the-box instructions and watched them very carefully while baking to ensure that they didn’t cook a minute too long and become too dry.  My favorite frosting recipe (tweaked a bit):

BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

2 sticks butter, room temperature

2 cups Crisco

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. Wilton’s butter flavoring

1 tsp. clear vanilla extract

1 tsp. almond extract

8 – 9 cups unsifted powdered sugar

1 tbsp. meringue powder (Wilton, Just Whites, etc.)

1 – 2 tbsp. water or milk, if necessary, for thinning

Combine butter, crisco and salt.  Mix on low speed for 5 minutes.  Add butter flavoring, vanilla and almond extracts, and mix together well.  Add 4 cups powdered sugar and the meringue powder.  Mix until blended.  Add the remaining powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until you reach the desired consistency.  (note: you may not use all the powdered sugar).  Continue mixing on low for several minutes.

I used a disposable pastry bag and the Wilton 1M tip to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.

Everyone said they were yummy, but, in the interest of quality control, I was forced to sample one of each for myself.  (how else would I know for sure????)  The result:  worth every stinkin’ calorie!

“A”

0 thoughts on “Special Day Cupcakes

  1. Teresa says:

    …looking at that picture as I munch my Weight Watchers toast….I’m in for a day of longing…did you take ALL of them to the party???

  2. Carol says:

    Heyyyyyyy…How’d Lisa get two? Why wasn’t I informed of these cupcakes before they were packed up? Huh? 🙁

  3. lisa says:

    So, it sounds like to me that you needed your favorite secret service agent there to SMACK your hands as you reached for that second cupcake!

    The other Lisa