Christmas Cupcakes

I thought I'd do something completely out of character for this blog, and instead of complaining about something, I'm going to write about baking.  In particular, the cupcakes I made for Christmas.  Now, I know Christmas isn't a big cupcake holiday, but I was just in that sort of mood.  I was going to make a proper cake, but I wanted to do something different.

I was thinking about making a spice cake (which I made for Thanksgiving) but with a different frosting.  Last time I did cream cheese, so I thought I'd do something with cinnamon this time.  My google search for "cinnamon frosting" didn't turn up much, but it did turn up this wonderful blog called Sweet Tooth... and I decided I simply had to make a variation on her Mardi Gras Cupcakes!

In her recipe, she did three colored cupcakes, but I only had one thing of food coloring in a holiday appropriate color (green), so I did that.  She used a boxed yellow cake mix and modified it by adding buttermilk, but I didn't have a cake mix (and enjoy doing it from scratch anyways), so I used my go-to yellow cake recipe from my Better Homes and Garden New Cookbook.  I did sub the milk for something approximating buttermilk (a mix of water and the little bit of instant buttermilk powder* I had left, plus skim milk with a bit of cream of tartar added to make up the difference), but it didn't gave the recipe as much of a "kick" as I hoped it would.  Next time I'll use the method Erica used in her recipe and see if that does what I figured it would.

* Note: This is available in your grocery store for about $3-4.  I merely linked to amazon to show a pic of the can... I had no idea what it looked like when I first found out about it.  =P

The frosting was a revelation, though.  Since I only made a dozen cupcakes, I did a half recipe for the frosting.  But I did add a bit more cinnamon to it.  I LOVE cinnamon, and I wanted a slightly more noticeable taste.  I also used margarine instead of butter, since that's what we had on hand (and is what we have most often, due to my mom's lactose intolerance).  And me being the weird type that I am, I mixed the frosting (and the batter as well) with no more than my whisk -- electric mixers are too much trouble and I have arms for a reason. =P  I was pleasantly surprised that the frosting took on a bit of that cinnamon color and looked really festive with the green cakes.  The frosting was also surprisingly light and fluffy... really delicious.  May have equaled or topped my penuche icing as my favorite!  And now I really want to get a piping bag... how much more gorgeous would these have been with fancy frosting? =)

I wished I had had sparkling sugar or sprinkles or even gumdrops to decorate them, but alas, I did not.  But these were definitely a hit... my first cupcakes from scratch, and the recipe is certainly a keeper.

These were an amazing companion to my famous homemade gingerbread which I heavily dusted with powdered sugar to up the Christmas fun when I was done baking. =P I made it snow!  (Also included in this bonus photo are the super tasty old-fashioned potato candies made by a friend).  Yes, this is one indulgent plate... and here's my little secret: that was my Boxing Day breakfast! LOL

Note to self: improve photography skills if you plan to do this food blogging thing again!