Happy New Years Eve! And a New Frosting Recipe
In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t made many cupcakes recently. I don’t know if I just got burnt out or what, but I’ve been making more bars and cookies recently. Bars are especially low maintenance which makes them so much easier to make than cupcakes. But cupcakes will always hold a special place in my heart. And I’ll continue to make them.
I actually made these cupcakes earlier in the year for a weekend getaway to a friend’s family lake house. I thought these photos with the sprinkles were perfectly festive for New Years Eve! Hubby and I are off ringing in the new year in Las Vegas with a big group of friends!
Since it’s our first trip to Vegas, I’m sure we’ll have a bunch of fun and plenty of stories to share when we get home. But for now, lets talk more about cupcakes. For these cupcakes, I used a classic chocolate cupcake recipe but I decided to try a new frosting recipe.
I used the new neon colored cupcake liners that have been in the grocery store this year. I love them because in general, the Wilton cupcake liners that come in a bag at stores like Michaels are cute, but they always seem to be a bit off in size. The cupcake liners that I order online are great – vibrant colors and the perfect size – but they’re a bit pricey. By default, I mostly use the classic pastel colored liners that come in the round plastic container, but recently, they’ve had these neon colored ones that are great. I can’t get enough of them!
This frosting has a great bakery-frosting flavor. It’s very sweet and everyone really enjoyed it. It had a decent amount of stiffness that was perfect for piping onto cupcakes as well. I will definitely be making this frosting again.
Dawn's Buttercream
Ingredients:
1 cup Crisco
1 pound powdered sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons meringue powder
Directions:
Cream shortening, water and flavoring.
Add powdered sugar and meringue powder. Mix until blended.
Add additional water until you reach the desired consistency. If you want really white icing be sure to use a clear extract. Vanilla extract will make the icing off white.
Recipe from Cooking with Carrie
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Mmmmm I love one dish cupcakes!
http://www.brisbanebaker.blogspot.com
Those cupcakes look delish! Can you tell me more about the “dipping in ganache” technique? Does the ganache need to be a certain consistency first?
I have seen some maple cheesecake around the blogs, maybe that would be awesome use for the sugar? Or to top maple sugar cookies 🙂
I made a seriously awesome maple mousse cake to go with Christmas dinner this year and it used maple sugar. It was one of the best desserts I’ve ever eaten. The link to the post is: http://joanne-eatswellwithothers.blogspot.com/2010/01/frozen-maple-mousse-pie-with-chocolate.html.
Go Butler!! I think I’m going to use your “go to” cupcake recipe to make some Final Four treats for the office Friday
Wow that maple syrup event looks really cool, I wish I had known about it- it looks like they only do it once a year!
Carly – I dipped the cupcakes in the ganache while it was still very liquidy. I did it a few minutes after making the ganache and then let it set up on the cupcakes. Hope that helps.
Jen, the maple syrup experience sounds like so much fun and I’ve always wanted to do it! I wonder if it’s too late this year.
Those cupcakes look so pretty. Can you tell me what kind of liners you’re using? They stay so nice and bright.
ooo I love sugar houses!!! The tastings are always the best 🙂
Lila, I get the liners online. Here is the link for the colored ones, and I also get brown liners as well.
The cupcakes look beautiful and festive!! I love real maple syrup!
I should have a birthday more often. So good…