6. chocolate sour cream w/ chocolate buttercream

Now these chocolate delights didn't turn out exactly like Betty's just because i altered the frosting recipe a smidgen. it called for however much of the baking chocolate to be melted and well, i didn't have any baking chocolate. i had plenty of chocolate chips and baking cocoa though, so i made due. i melted some of the chocolate chips with a teeny bit of milk (because, once again, i was out of whipping cream) and then also just added some cocoa. The result was yummy but i could've added more powdered sugar to make it more stiff. Next time.

i also found out the difference between the closed star and open star frosting tips. in Betty's picture those are closed star. i used an open star because i really wasn't sure. Well, now i am. it's all in the learning process, right?

5. peppermint swirl

i think these are my favorite cupcakes so far because they are so so delicious! Betty Crocker sure knows what she's doing when it comes to baked treats.

Here's hers:

Here's a little spiel about the making of these phenomenal goodies. You start with a white cake batter and separate about 1/3 of it. That third gets some peppermint extract (make sure it says peppermint, regular old mint is not the same thing) and add some red food coloring. Then you alternate putting the white and peppermint batters into the cupcake liners and swirl it around. After they're baked you frost them with a peppermint buttercream and decorate them like peppermint swirl candies. Perfection!

Now, the only thing is mine didn't turn out exactly "white". i added vanilla pudding mix to the batter because it just makes cake so much more moist and delicious. But as you know (or don't know and are just finding out) pudding is not white and therefore made my white cake a yellow cake. No biggie.