Pink and Brown Cupcakes for Queenie's Birthday

It was Queenie's birthday Sunday. Though we are having her party this Wed, I still wanted her to have a treat and a candle to blow out, on the actual day of her birth. Knowing I was going to have a cake on Wed, I only wanted to make a few cupcakes. I decided to cut my cake mix in half and freeze the rest. I've done this before and the remainder is still fresh and works perfectly. Since I wanted to do pink and brown cupcakes, I decided to use white cake mix and tint half pink and turn the other half into chocolate cake. I melted 6 oz of semi sweet chocolate and added it one half of the prepared cake mix. The rest I turned pink, with some Wilton coloring gel.

It's the first time I've ever made butter cream and I think it turned out so wonderfully! It was light and fluffy; even Hubby was impressed, LOL. The cupcakes were so cute (even though I ended up having to use Halloween liners, since I forgot to buy regular liners.....), light, moist and delicious. Queenie especially loved the frosting and was quite pleased with her pink and brown cupcakes.

Pink and Brown Cupcakes with Butter Cream Frostingprintable version
1 vanilla cake mix
3 eggs
1/4 C oil
1 1/3 C water
12 oz semi sweet chocolate, melted
pink coloring gel

Line cupcake pan with liners. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine cake mix with eggs, oil and water, following manufacturers directions. Pour half the batter into a second bowl. Add the melted chocolate, mixing well to combine. Tint remaining batter to desired shade of pink, using the coloring gel. Fill muffin cups 1/3 of the way with pink batter. Fill remaining 1/3 of the cup with chocolate batter (cups should be 2/3 full). Bake in oven for 18-25 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Butter Cream Frosting

1/2 C unsalted butter (1 stick)
5 C powdered sugar
4 Tbs heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
Wilton food color gel

In a medium bowl, cream the butter and food color, until light and fluffy. Slowly add powdered sugar; 1 C at a time, beating well after each cup is added. If mixture becomes too thick, add 2 Tbs heavy cream, then continue adding powdered sugar. Once all sugar is added, add remaining 2 Tbs cream and beat until light and fluffy. Frost cupcakes or cake; or pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

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Cupcake Tuesday

Tuesday Night Supper Club

Tempt my Tummy Tuesday

This Week's Craving

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