Sweetheart Cupcakes

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I made Sweetheart cupcakes for Valentines Day to bring to all my wonderful co-workers.  Me and Taylor had a fun time decorating these great looking cupcakes.  I frosted and he decorated.  They were easy and fun to make.  We found our inspiration at allrecipes.  We did these cupcakes in shades of pink for Valentine's Day, but with St. Patrick's Day next month, shades of green would be cool, oh and pastel colors for Easter, red, white and blue for Independence Day...you get the picture !! 

Sweetheart Cupcakes

Ingredients


1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix

1 1/4 cups water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 egg whites

8 drops red food coloring (I used red and pink)

2 drops raspberry candy oil (did not use)

Directions

1.Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a standard muffin tin with paper cupcake liners.

2.Beat the cake mix, water, vegetable oil, and egg whites together on low speed for 30 seconds, then on medium for 2 minutes, until smooth. Fill cupcake liners 1/3 full with white batter; set aside.

3.Stir 4 drops of red food coloring into the remaining bowl of batter to make the batter pink, stir in the raspberry oil. Pour 1/3 of pink batter into a resealable plastic bag and set aside.

4.Mix more food coloring into the remaining bowl of pink batter until it is an orange/red color and pour the batter into a resealable plastic bag. Cut a corner off the bag, stick the open tip into the center of each cup of white batter and squeeze in about two tablespoons of red batter.

5.Cut the corner off the bag with the pink batter, stick the open tip into the center of the red batter and squeeze about 1 tablespoon pink batter into each cup.

6.Bake the layered cupcakes in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.
 
 

Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

1 cup butter (no substitutes), softened


8 cups confectioners' sugar


2 teaspoons vanilla extract


1/2 cup milk


Directions


1.In a mixing bowl, cream butter until light and fluff. Beat in sugar and vanilla. Add 1/4 cup of the milk, add more milk by the tablespoon until desired consistency.  Frosting should be creamy, not runny.


For Chocolate Frosting: Substitute 1/2 cup baking cocoa for 1/2 cup of the confectioners' sugar. For Peanut Butter Frosting: Substitute peanut butter for butter. For Lemon-or Orange-Flavored Frosting: Substitute lemon or orange juice for milk and add 1 teaspoon grated lemon or orange peel. For Almond-or Peppermintt-Flavored Frosting: Substitute almond or peppermint extractct for the vanilla. Liquid or paste food coloring may be added to match flavoring (green for mint, for example) or for contrast when decorating. ?



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