Cupcake extravaganza

Ok I know it's pi day (3.14), but I really wasn't in the mood for pie. I'm just now recuperating from being sick. I mean bed ridden sick. Although I kept going to work every day last week it finally got the best of me on Friday. I was in bed most of the day and it wasn't until Sunday morning that I realized "Man, I was really sick!" that just goes to show how much better I was feeling come Sunday.

Well even though I was not 100% myself yet I did make cupcakes on Saturday night. Now it wasn't from scratch cupcakes, but I did fix up a mix a little bit. Sometimes you just have to make do when obstacles stand in your way. The frosting, however, is homemade. It was the left over frosting from my cake decorating class and I just really needed to use it up.

Now the cake mix was just a generic brand of cake mix and I tried to give it a little something to wake it up a bit. My secret ingredient is coffee flavoring syrup. You know the stuff you pour into your coffee to jazz it up a bit. I buy the stuff at Sam's club to give my coffee a little zip, but I thought why not try it in the cake mix and see if it adds a little flavor.

The cake mix was a devils food cake  and I had raspberry syrup. What a nice combination. Instead of adding all the water that the mix called for I added only a cup and then put in the 1/3 cup of raspberry syrup. I then added the oil and eggs as usual and baked the cupcakes as directed.

Once the cupcakes were cooled I used my D2 decorating tip and a disposable decorating bag and got to work decorating some of the cupcakes with pink and purple frosting. I also used used tip 18 to make little stars on some cupcakes with green and yellow frosting.

The frosting is the buttercream icing that Wilton cake decorating classes has you make and it seems to pass the test with everyone so why not. I'll post the recipe so if you want to try your hand at decorating you have the stuff to do it right. You'll want it a medium consistency to decorate with decorating tips.

Buttercream Icing
(stiff consistency)
1C solid white vegetable shorting
1 t Wilton Flavor (vanilla, almond or butter)
7-8 t milk or water (add 2 1/2 t more for medium consistency)
1 lb. pure cane confectioners sugar
1 T Wilton Meringue Powder
pinch of salt (if you want to cut down on the sweet taste)

Cream shorting, flavoring and water. Add dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until all ingredients have been thoroughly mixed together . blend an additional minute or so until creamy. Makes 2 1/2 cups.