Gotta Love the Cupcakes

As I might have mentioned in a previous post, my other current passion — besides stamping — is cupcakes. In a future post, I'll show you some of my favorites from the last few months, but tonight I'll show you the cupcakes I made for the Daddy Shower we gave my co-worker whose wife had the baby recently (the one from the "onesie" post last week).

These are not complicated cupcakes by any means. I confess to using Betty Crocker Butter Recipe Yellow Cake mix, made exactly as the box instructs. The frosting is a recipe I got from my youngest daughter. She brought some cupcakes to my birthday party the other night, and they were to die for, so I called her up for the recipe (isn't it supposed to be the other way around?). Here it is:

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 - 8 oz. box cream cheese, softened
1 - stick unsalted butter, softened
2 - tsp. vanilla extract
1 - 1 lb. box confectioners sugar

In mixer with paddle attachment, beat first 3 ingredients until very well blended. Gradually add the sugar and beat at medium for a few minutes until it is all smooth and light and fluffy.

Easy peasy, and totally delicious! I just plopped it into a disposable decorating cone with a large star tip and piped it onto the cooled cupcakes. The decorations are made by melting pre-colored chocolate candy melts and pouring into a candy mold. Really takes no talent at all!

Gotta get into bed early tonight (actually, it's already too late to do that) so I can get up early enough to vote before I go into work tomorrow!