Cupcakes!

Today is my roommate's birthday, so last night I made cupcakes for her. I've been practicing icing for a while so I'd be able to decorate the cupcakes with frosting roses. Unfortunately, the recipe for the frosting is based on shortening and butter, so the 80° weather didn't do much to firm up the frosting at all... I'd say they didn't come out half bad, though:

I used a recipe for chocolate cupcakes and substituted white chocolate for dark chocolate to make them white (leaving out the chocolate had disastrous results the last time I tried!). The roses came out looking more like carnations, but flowers are flowers, right?

And by the way, it took me three hours to bake and decorate 30 cupcakes. I was done shortly before midnight--just in time to light the candles!

So, the recipe for the cupcakes is from my free Betty Crocker Cookbook app:

2 C Flour
2 C Sugar
3/4 C Sour Cream
1/4 C Shortening
1 C Water
1 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
2 eggs
4 oz. melted Baking Chocolate (dark chocolate works best, but white works ok, too).

Mix everything on low 30 seconds, then on high 3 minutes. Fill paper-lined muffin form 2/3 full. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes (my first batch needed 20 minutes, and my second and third batches needed 30 minutes each). Remove from pan to cool on a rack.

The icing recipe is from the Wilton website:

1/2 C solid vegetable shortening
1/2 C softened butter or margerine
1 tsp Vanilla
4 C confectioner's sugar
2 Tsp milk (I accidentally used only 2 tsp, and it was fine...)

Cream everything and gradually add sugar, scraping the sides often.

Enjoy!