Happy New Years Eve! And a New Frosting Recipe
In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t made many cupcakes recently. I don’t know if I just got burnt out or what, but I’ve been making more bars and cookies recently. Bars are especially low maintenance which makes them so much easier to make than cupcakes. But cupcakes will always hold a special place in my heart. And I’ll continue to make them.
I actually made these cupcakes earlier in the year for a weekend getaway to a friend’s family lake house. I thought these photos with the sprinkles were perfectly festive for New Years Eve! Hubby and I are off ringing in the new year in Las Vegas with a big group of friends!
Since it’s our first trip to Vegas, I’m sure we’ll have a bunch of fun and plenty of stories to share when we get home. But for now, lets talk more about cupcakes. For these cupcakes, I used a classic chocolate cupcake recipe but I decided to try a new frosting recipe.
I used the new neon colored cupcake liners that have been in the grocery store this year. I love them because in general, the Wilton cupcake liners that come in a bag at stores like Michaels are cute, but they always seem to be a bit off in size. The cupcake liners that I order online are great – vibrant colors and the perfect size – but they’re a bit pricey. By default, I mostly use the classic pastel colored liners that come in the round plastic container, but recently, they’ve had these neon colored ones that are great. I can’t get enough of them!
This frosting has a great bakery-frosting flavor. It’s very sweet and everyone really enjoyed it. It had a decent amount of stiffness that was perfect for piping onto cupcakes as well. I will definitely be making this frosting again.
Dawn's Buttercream
Ingredients:
1 cup Crisco
1 pound powdered sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons meringue powder
Directions:
Cream shortening, water and flavoring.
Add powdered sugar and meringue powder. Mix until blended.
Add additional water until you reach the desired consistency. If you want really white icing be sure to use a clear extract. Vanilla extract will make the icing off white.
Recipe from Cooking with Carrie
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Mmmm sugar cookies bars! What an awesome combo!
http://www.brisbanebaker.blogspot.com
Top o’ the mornin’ to ya! These bars look fabulous!
http://www.simplysweeter.blogspot.com
Oh – YUM! I want to go home immediately and bake these!
I love baking that has simple recipes and turn out delicious! These look great for any occasion 🙂
LOVE THOSE!!! They are super cute. And you can’t go wrong with green sprinkles! 🙂
Oooooh! These sound delicious, I am definitely going to make these. Thanks for sharing, have a wonderful day! Denise@cottagesisters
I’m newer to the blogging scene so these bars are new to me! Thanks for posting it again.
They may have been all the rage last year but they are new to me! I wasn’t able to find any st. patricks day sprinkles … bummer. Yummy looking pictures
Happy St. Patty’s Day! What yummy sugar cookie bars – love the sprinkles!
mmmm…mmm…mmmm… making these right now for my nephew and niece! =)
Thank you for sharing! =)
I love this recipe – and I know what you mean about the supermarket sprinkles. I have a huge tub of heart shaped ones leftover from a purchase last year and I think there’s enough to last me for the next twenty years of Valentine’s day treats.
I made these the other evening for a picnic and they were all that you had promised! Oh my! One of my new favorites for sure. Thanks for sharing this and for the rec for a half batch!
Just made these. My kids are loving them.