Happy Birthday HJ!

HJ and I decided to actively save money for a house recently, and he banned me from baking because it costs so much. (Enter sad face here.)  Yesterday, I decided to bake anyway (ha! so there!) because today is HJ's birthday and BJ's 3 Month Birthday! However, I decided to be good and use the ingredients I had, so I made cupcakes using the box cake mix, the ultimate betrayal of all bakers.  Oh well, it turned out yummy and I made homemade icing.  I used Birthday Cake mix and Cream Cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

5 Tbl Butter (melted)

1 Block (8 oz.) Cream Cheese

2 Cups Powdered (Confectioner's) Sugar

Food Coloring

1. Mix or beat together cream cheese and butter.

2. Mix in shifted powdered sugar

3. Add in food coloring.

See how easy that is?  Well. I learned that no matter how easy a recipe looks on paper, I, being the new baker that I am, can still mess it up!  I didn't sift the powdered sugar, mostly because, well, I don't have a sifter, so there were small clumps of powdered sugar in the frosting.  Good thing I wasn't planning to give the cupcakes away!  And the other thing... doesn't the color look a little blegh?  I used four drops of blue food coloring but it didn't turn out the way I wanted. I've been reading that I shouldn't use the simple food coloring found in grocery stores (mine are from Wal-Mart) and I should use food coloring made specifically for baking.  I'd like to repeat that HJ has banned from buying anything related to baking, so I couldn't buy this specific food coloring.  I guess Wal-Mart food coloring will have to do for now!  After putting the cupcakes in the refrigerator, they came out yummy anyway.  So there.