I LOVE cupcakes!

I don't know why the cupcake is so appealing to me. maybe it is the mess free serving right there ready for my eating pleasure? no cutting the cake, no forks, just this beautiful little package in my hands- that i could even take out the door!

so for wild one's birthday yesterday- i made her some cupcakes- from SCRATCH!!!

I have been watching- yes i will admit it- Martha stewart's show- the talk show-esque one... and she had these 2 sisters on there who own a cupcake shop in DC. they make and sell supcakes for - get this - $2.75 each! wow!

anyways they came on and made one of their recipes for martha and it looked yummy. so i didn't have any cake mix so i tried this recipe...

chocolate cupcakes with vanilla cream cheese frosting
(to find the frosting recipe- you have to click on the vanilla frosting link in the recipe)

alright so for the recipe these were election cupcakes with republican elephants on there and blue donkeys- as a side note- where did those symbols come from? republicans being strong and powerful and democrats being stubborn and hard-headed?

so of course- i didn't do elephants or donkeys- even though her birthday was on election day... instead i put the icing in a pastry bag- with a large star tip on it and swirled it on top- it takes a lot of frosting to do this but doesn't it look pretty? I sprinkled on chocolate jimmies- otherwise know as sprinkles. then right before eating i added the chocolate teddy grahams, so they wouldn't get soggy.
they were pretty good- cream cheese is never a bad thing. now the recipe only called for 12 cupcakes filled 2/3 full- but i had enough batter to make like 15-17. but i still had enough frosting to cover- so that is a good thing- see now i even sound like martha.
now i need a kitchen aid mixer... but where to put it?
so if you ever see a giveaway for a kitchen aid mixer- you better let me know!

so i need to bring in cupcakes for a bake sale at the kids school and i am in charge of bringing in cake for the teachers friday and i forgot to get someone to do it for me so need to make another batch. and then wild one's bday party is saturday and need to make some for her too! guess what i will be doing tomorrow!
i need to do a different recipe for the frosting at least- because i don't want to have to refrigerate 3 dozen or so cupcakes.... i hardly have room for 2 gallons of milk!