pink cupcake party!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. I know two women who are currently fighting breast cancer and one sweet young mother in my neighborhood who passed away in July. Heros, ALL of them! A friend of mine hosted a fundraiser/bake sale last night for research & awareness. She has personal experience as her mom is a breast cancer SURVIVOR & they are both such inspiring ladies. She asked me to make some cupcakes to be sold at her event. Of course, I jumped at the chance to make PINK CUPCAKES! The money she raised was donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. She's already planning for next year & I'll happily make as many pink cupcakes as requested!

Don't tell anyone but...I used a cake mix for these. I actually LOVE some cake mixes. Sometimes I doctor them up. And I do have great HOMEMADE recipes for Carrot Cake, Red Velvet Cake, Chocolate Cake, Coconut Cake & Caramel Cake. But for plain old vanilla cake, I almost always use a mix. I used a Duncan Hines white cake mix & added some red food coloring to make these pink.

But I do have an AMAZING frosting recipe to share. This recipe is from my sister who is a semi-pro cake decorator & she got the recipe from my aunt who IS a professional cake decorator. This one is made with Crisco which makes your frosting much more stable than butter. The butter flavoring, vanilla and almond extract makes it YUMMY!

Pink Cupcake Frosting

ingredients:

1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2 teaspoons Wilton clear butter flavoring
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups shortening
2 lbs. powdered sugar

directions:

1. Dissolve salt in water in mixing bowl. Add almond extract, butter flavoring & vanilla. Mix for a few seconds. Mix in the shortening. Gradually add powdered sugar & beat until you reach desired consistency.