Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Frugal Food Thursday: Spring Cupcakes

Welcome to Frugal Food Thursday!  If you have a great frugal recipe, please link up below! 

Nothing says spring like these brightly-colored flowered cupcakes!

My daughters and I made these for my youngest daughter's birthday party.  She insisted on cupcakes this year, rather than a cake.  Instead of a mix, I decided to make the cupcakes and icing from scratch.  True, you can often get cake mix free by combining sales and coupons, but the mix's ingredient list is a mile long.  These cupcakes only have 7 ingredients, and the icing only has 5.

To get these ingredients cheaply, look for sales, primarily just before Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  This week, flour and sugar are on sale at Walgreens, and eggs are pretty cheap at Target.  And I found the sprinkles for decorating at ALDI - only $2.99 for a huge jar with six different types of sprinkles.

I found these recipes from the Nick Jr. website, but I felt their cupcake recipe made too few and their icing recipe made too much, so I've adjusted the amounts.

BASIC CUPCAKES

2 cups sugar
2 sticks butter, softened
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Cream the sugar and butter together.  Beat in the eggs and add the vanilla.  In a separate bowl, mix together the flour and baking powder.  Add that to the wet ingredients a bit at a time, mixing after each addition.  Stir in the milk and mix until smooth.

Line 2 cupcake pans with cupcake liners.  Spray the liners with non-stick spray.  Spoon the batter into the liners, making the cupcakes 2/3 full.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Allow to cool completely before frosting.

BASIC FROSTING

1-1/2 sticks butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
dash of salt
3 cups confectioner's sugar
3 tbsp milk

Mix the butter with a mixer until light and fluffy.  Add the salt and vanilla.  Add the confectioner's sugar a little at a time and continue to mix with the mixer until all the sugar is incorporated.  Add the milk, one tablespoon at a time, until the frosting is spreadable, but not too thin.

DECORATING:
Split the frosting into two bowls.  Using gel food coloring (available at the craft store - definitely worth the investment!), add a drop of pink to one bowl and a drop of green to the other.  Mix each bowl.  Add more coloring if you wish to have a more vibrant color - but you don't need much.  Spread the pink frosting on 12 of the cupcakes and green onto the other 12.

Sprinkle the pink cupcakes with lavender sugar, and sprinkle the green cupcakes with multicolored sprinkles.

Add a flower cupcake decoration (I found these at the craft store) to each cupcake.

There are lots more cheap recipes posted here at Frugal FolliesClick here for the list!

Got a great frugal recipe?  Link below to your actual post, not your main page.  Please only link up recipes and other food-related posts; contest entries and other posts are not allowed and will be deleted. I'd appreciate it if you would link back to Frugal Food Thursday as well!



For more great recipes, please visit the bloggers listed on the left sidebar under Food Linkups. There are lots of great recipes on each blog and I'm sure you'll find some new favorites!

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24 comments:

Jill April 21, 2011 at 6:10 AM  

Hi,
I shared my basic brine for chickens and an article. I hope you like them!

Kathryn April 21, 2011 at 7:51 AM  

Love your cupcakes! Please share your recipe with our readers by linking it up at Muffin Monday. Thanks!
http://www.talkingdollarsandcents.net/muffin-monday-applesauce-muffins

Lisa April 21, 2011 at 9:48 AM  

Thanks for hosting! I'm sharing my recipe for oatmeal date muffins. My ten-year-old daughter and I are baking up a new muffin recipe every Monday this year; stop on by and check out our growing collection of inexpensive and easy healthy recipes! Who needs a box mix? Not us! Blessings! ~Lisa

judee April 21, 2011 at 3:45 PM  

The cupcakes look so festive.. thanks for hosting
I linked a post on how to reduce toxins in the home using certain house plants.

Miz Helen April 21, 2011 at 5:42 PM  

Great looking cupcakes, yummy recipe. Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday and hope you have a very special week end. Hope to see you next week!

Anonymous,  April 21, 2011 at 10:32 PM  

Those cupcakes look so scrumptious!! I can't wait to give it a try myself! Thanks for posting :)

Please check my FTF entry for this week: Hap Chan
Much ♥,
Pearl
Sassy Chef Recipes and Reviews

Tina @ MOMS CRAZY COOKING April 22, 2011 at 2:34 PM  

I LOVE your spring cupcakes.... they would go perfect in our "EASTER COOKIES & TREATS" Linky Party and we'd love for you to come on over and share them with the rest of us! They are too CUTE!

http://momscrazycooking.blogspot.com/2011/04/this-weeks-cravings-linky-party-25.html

Susie Buetow April 23, 2011 at 8:55 AM  

Yum yum!!! Just saw you on the It's a Keeper Thur. Hop! Stop on over at my blog and link up this tasty recipe in my Easter/Spring Recipe/Idea Hop! If you have others, feel free to link up! I'll keep it going for a few months so you should get some visits from it!!!

http://cafescrapper-scrapsoflife.blogspot.com/2011/04/easter-holiday-goodies-in-jar-and-blog.html

Have a great weekend, SusieQTpies at Scraps of Life

PS I'm your newest GFC and Facebook Follower!

Lori April 23, 2011 at 11:24 PM  

Wow man. . .those cupcakes take me back to the '60's. Flower power!! LOL. They are adorable and in my fav colors too!!!

Lori

Tetcha April 24, 2011 at 7:32 AM  

Very nice and colorful and I bet yummy, too! I hope you can visit my FTF entry also. Thanks! http://www.delightmyappetite.com/2011/04/food-trip-friday-philly-cheese-steak/

Cheerful April 25, 2011 at 6:10 AM  

lovely cupcakes...thanks for sharing your recipe, i bet its really delicious! have a great week! -PinayMum - Mommy's Life Around...

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home April 25, 2011 at 8:08 PM  

Your cupcakes are so cute! Thanks for linking up for Friday Favorites. I'm going to link up to your party too!

Swathi April 27, 2011 at 5:05 PM  

Delicious cupcakes, they are awesome. Thanks for sharing with Hearth and soul blog hop. We will appreciate if you put worded or picture link in the post and not in the sides.

Katherine May 2, 2011 at 11:44 PM  

Your cupcakes look great..the flowers were the perfect touch on top! Thanks for linking!

Screaming Sardine July 10, 2011 at 5:16 PM  

These are so cute. So spring-y and colorful!

I'd love for you to link this and any other cupcake related post you have at the month long Cupcake Link Party!

Cheers,
Tracy

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