Happy Nom Nom Monday! Yesterday for Easter I made some mini pastel cupcakes. I used dollar store yellow cake box mix. I know making from scratch is nicer, but man, a dollar for cake mix is hard to beat. To make the cheap cake mix more moist I used milk instead of water, but otherwise I followed the box instructions. I'm not a fan of dry cake, and I definitely H.A.T.E. store bought icing. I used to think I didn't like cake either, until I met Aaron's mom!! That lady knows how to bake a cake! :)
For the icing I mixed up a simple buttercream recipe. I used 1 cup unsalted soft butter, 3 cups powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons whole milk, and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extra, and a pinch of salt. Begin by lightly beating the butter, then slowly add in the confectioner's sugar. Then mix in the milk, vanilla, and salt. Once fully mixed, you should have about 3 cups of icing. I wanted to make four colors, so I separated the icing into four 3/4 cup batches.
For the mint colored icing I used just one drop of blue, and one drop of green liquid food coloring. I used a metal spatula to apply the icing to the mini cupcakes. For these guys, after I had fully covered the cupcake I would pat the icing with the spatula, to create these fun spikes all over.
For the orange I used one drop of red, and two drops of yellow. For this color I left the icing smooth.
For the blue icing I used two drops of blue dye, and again I went for the spiky look.
To mix the pink up I used two drops of red.
I am so please with how lovely all the colors turned out. This recipe makes plenty of icing for one box of cake mix. I made 44 mini cupcakes, and there was more than plenty of icing. So don't be stingy with the icing, and spread it on thick! Oh, and don't mind the cupcake wrappers, they were the only mini ones we had in the house. They're Halloween themed, my favorite holiday! :)
Happy DIYing, chris
