{easy cupcake flags & pipeable frosting}

 I {heart} cupcakes.  I love to make them and then freeze them, so I always have them on hand. Sometimes I just need a few of them, and it's so nice to be able to take what I need from the freezer instead of making a whole batch. You can keep them frozen for at least a couple of months...if they last that long!  

Let's talk frosting (the best part ☺). I'm a buttercream girl, and I've always made it with butter--no shortening. I've just preferred the taste of it, and come on, there's nothing better than real butter!  It works for most things, but it can be too soft to pipe and have it stay where you put it.  If you're inside, and can keep it refrigerated, it's fine, but once it goes higher than room temperature, it has a high chance of spreading or melting.

A few months ago I sampled the frosting of a cutey cute friend of mine, when I tried cupcakes she made for her daughter's birthday.  Lo and behold, the frosting stayed just where it was supposed to, and it tasted really yummy! That's all it took for me to add shortening to the frosting when I need to pipe it, and she kindly shared her recipe with me. (see below) For these cupcakes, I just used a sandwich bag, and spooned the frosting into one corner. I snipped the corner with my scissors, and piped it on...with some help from my very eager 2 year olds. 

I wanted to use a plain white frosting on top of these chocolate cupcakes, so I needed  to add a little something cute to the tops.  I used these fancy tabs die cuts from Lifestyle Crafts to cut out large pennant flags from scrapbook paper and cardstock on my Epic. It's super easy to use, and honestly, usually takes me about 5 minutes to cut out what I need. I LOVE the large size of these flags, and it makes it easy to add text, monograms, or anything you like to them.  Instead of using toothpicks, which would have been to small, I just used white lollipop sticks, which were perfect! SO cute, and SO easy.

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 Thawed cupcakes from your freezer + 5 minutes to make frosting + 5 minutes to make flags + 5-10 minutes to decorate = DARLING cupcakes in less than 20 minutes!

{Pipeable Buttercream Frosting}

4 c. powdered sugar

1/2 c. shortening

1/2 c. butter

1-2 T. heavy cream/half & half/whole milk

1 tsp. vanilla

dash salt

Beat the sugar with the shortening and butter, adding a little milk at a time.  Start with 1 T. milk, and only add more if you need it.  Beat until creamy.  Add the vanilla and salt.  I always add just a dash of salt to frosting--it really brings out the flavor, and cuts the super sweet taste.

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You can get 20% off Lifestyle products using the promo code BROWNPAPER.  They are also currently offering free shipping on any order over $25 through April 30th.

 

Disclosure:  Lifestyle Crafts sent me product to review.  All opinions are 100% mine.  Please see my full disclosure HERE.