By the Batch - V Day Cupcakes

In honour of Valentine's Day I took a break from cookies this weekend and made a batch of pretty pink mini cupcakes to share with family and friends.

The cake part is French Vanilla from a plain old Betty Crocker mix. The buttercream is homemade using the recipe I learned in my Wilton class.

Ingredients:
1 cup vegetable shortening
1 tsp clear vanilla extract (make sure it's the clear kind so you end up with true white icing)
1/8 tsp butter flavour
2 tbsp water
1 lb (approx 4 cups) icing sugar
1 tbsp meringue powder
Pinch of salt

Directions:
Cream shortening, flavoring and water. Add all other ingredients and mix on medium speed until thoroughly mixed together. Blend until creamy.

This recipe yields about 3 cups of stiff consistency icing. For these cupcakes I needed medium consistency so I added water by the tbsp until the icing was thin enough. To tint the icing pink I used gel food colouring.

I used a Wilton 22 tip and piped a swirl on the top of each cupcake, working from the outside in to the centre. Then I sprinkled on some coarse red sugar to finish them off. Easy and delicious - and the mini size makes people feel less guilty about indulging :)

Happy Valentine's Day!