After eight years of being together, my son is finally marrying his high school sweetheart. The wedding day is getting closer and the bridal shower is tomorrow. I bought them a great photo cake from our local SAMS but I decided to save a few dollars and make the cupcakes myself. Lemon cupcakes with my favorite, Butter Cream Frosting. I’ve always loved Butter Cream Frosting and I when I was a child, I used to fantasize about making a bowl of icing and eating the whole thing myself. Well, I never did that, but I sure have eaten my fair share of icing. We ordered the wedding cake today, all $560 worth and I saw these really cute cupcakes they were selling, six for $4.00. I can do that, I thought, so I had to try. Theirs were definitely cuter, but mine were cheaper!

There’s the recipe for Butter Cream Frosting

Ingredients

1 Stick butter or margarine (I used butter, I just like it better, but it needs to soften a little first)
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla (I use real vanilla as opposed to imitation. Its a lot more expensive, but I think it’s worth it for the flavor)
2 TBLs milk
1/4 tsp. salt

Cream the butter then add the powdered sugar one cup at a time. When the sugar and butter is creamed add the vanilla, salt and milk, one tablespoon at a time. If the icing is thicker than you like, just add more milk, about a teaspoon at a time.

Many years ago, before she died, my mother was into cake decorating. She made beautiful cakes with roses and trellis, (trellises? trellisi?) but I have to admit, almost everything my mother made, be it cake decorating, sewing or needlework, was beautifully crafted. I tried at the time to decorate cakes the way she did, but I was never able to get mine to look right. This is generally why I gave it up. What a mess I make!

Many of the decorating tips I used to own have been lost or dented so I actually went and bought a new flower tip. I piped the icing around the cupcake, but one thing I have learned since then is to put a smear a small amount of icing on the cupcake before decorating. It makes the icing adhere better. So I was on my way to the final product.

Whalah! Two dozen iced and decorated cupcakes for less than $8.00! Not the prettiest, but boy, they sure tasted good!