Baking up a storm....

It's hard to sit down for more than 5 minutes during the holidays, but I'm finally doing it. I have been baking up a storm. Thanks to some inspiration from a dear friend, I have discovered that besides making my favorite southern cuisine, I'm quite the baker....and I really enjoy decorating cakes and cupcakes. I'm definitely no professional, but some of the stuff doesn't look too bad! So here are some of the things I have made over the past month or so....homemade I might add...

My son's Shark Birthday Cake:

My daughter's Ladybug Cupcakes:

My niece's Rollerskate Cake:

Red velvet cupcakes for a family event:

Margarita cupcakes for another family event (i have to admit, these were good by not my favorite, too tangy or something):

Toy Story Alien cupcakes for my baby cousin:

My friend's Belle Cupcakes:

...and a gingerbread cake with orange cream cheese icing:

All of the icing on these cakes I used a basic and easy buttercream recipe (that a friend gave me) as a base. The cakes are all a butter cake recipe except for the margarita, red velvet and gingrebread cake (those are boxes from the grocery store).
Buttercream Icing:

3 cups confectioners' sugar 

1 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-2 tablespoons milk or whipping cream, usually milk cause I have it on hand

In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together, adding sugar 1 cup at a time.  Mix on low speed until well blended, then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes, pushing down sides of bowl as needed with a rubber screaper. Add vanilla and milk/cream and beat for another minute. Dye with gel icing as needed.

Variations:

For cream cheese icing on the red velvet cakes, I added 12 oz cream cheese to the basic recipe above and 1/2 cup of cool whip.

For Margarita Icing and cupcakes, I used lime juice in place of the vanilla in the basic recipe above and added a little lime zest and dyed them green. The cupcakes are a white cake mix (box from store) but replacing the water with thawed margarita mix and adding lime zest.

Orange cream cheese icing and gingerbread cake...The icing is the basic butter cream recipe above, with 8 oz cream cheese added and 1 tablespoon of orange zest. Dyes colors as I needed. The gingerbread cake is just a box mix from the store.