Well, after all of those cookies I just couldn't help myself - I had to make some Christmas cupcakes! These were actually an order from the Executive Director of my "day job" as a thank you to those businesses that provided so much support to our tiny non-profit throughout the 2011 calendar year.
I knew I was going to be exhausted and wasn't going to want to do a lot of decorations, plus when giving thank you gifts from your business you typically don't want to get too secular. I suggested my famous "Ashley" cupcake - Devil's Food cupcake, but instead of vanilla buttercream I made peppermint buttercream. I crushed up some candy canes to add a delightful Holiday topping, just right for this time of the year!
First you start with the dry ingredients: baking soda, baking powder, flour, and I always use Hershey's Special Dark cocoa for this recipe. It makes the cupcakes darker and more rich, in my opinion.
Don't forget the butter, salt and sugar!
The cupcake recipe is from this amazing cupcakes book - I would be nothing without Martha!
Eggs, hot water, sour cream (secret moisturizer of cupcakes) and some yummy new vanilla Marlo got me from
Penzeys. It's super strong, but I double-checked - my Costco vanilla is the same strength. :)
I saw this bumper sticker on Marlo's fridge on Saturday morning, and it was in my Christmas gift Saturday night!!! I just LOVE it. It's now on my fridge, too!
Here are the candy canes that I crushed up - I have a huge box of these leftover from an experiment-gone-wrong last year, so I need to think of other creative "stuff" to do with them!
And here are the cupcakes! I made 96 cupcakes. Holy smokes!!!!
I hope everyone enjoyed them! I gave a few to my own friends as well. xoxo!
they really were awesome. loved!!
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