Oh cupcakes... is there anything better? No, especially if we're talking holiday cupcakes. Earlier today I decided to whip up some cupcakes for a holiday party we were going to this afternoon and after a quick Flickr search, decided to put my own spin on these. I used Betty Crocker Devil's Food cake mix, and instead of store frosting I experimented with making my own buttercream frosting. The first recipe I used was too sweet and almost glaze-like (which the reviews would have told me had I bothered to read them), so Jared and I hustled to the co-op down the street to get more butter and I tried for round 2, this time using a slightly different, much more positively reviewed recipe. It tasted SO good, and with a bit of green food coloring the frosting was done. (By the way, I had never previously looked into what was involved in making your own frosting, but it's surprisingly super easy. If you can make cupcakes from a mix, you can definitely make your own frosting.)
Instead of using my standard knife to cupcake approach, I loaded the frosting into a Ziploc bag, snipped off a small corner, and tried my hand at piping the frosting onto the cupcakes. It probably would have been easier to use a pastry bag and piping tip, but in a pinch I think the Ziploc baggy worked pretty well. To finish off the cupcakes I sprinkled them with crushed candy canes and stuck each one with a mini candy cane.
