..Easy Peasy Homemade Cream Cheese Icing

August 15, 2011

There are few things in this world that bring more happiness to people than cupcakes.  I am a lover of all things cupcake and I must have this in common with the masses or there wouldn’t be a new cupcake boutique going into business every other day to torment my waist-line.  As much as I like to sample different bakeries’ confectionary concoctions (and have my favorites amongst them - I’m convinced Curbside Cupcake’s “Tequila Sunrise” cupcake is made with crack), I don’t think it can ever get much better than a homemade one.

I really feel that all vanilla cake is pretty similar no matter where you go.  Even if you decide to make it from scratch, some of you may disagree, but to me, plain white cake is plain white cake.  For this reason I've decided that when this is the flavor of choice--you can cheat and buy the box, which is what I did for this recipe (I will forever have a special place in my heart for Funfetti flavor even though it’s the same exact thing with the addition of some sprinkles).  I do make cake batter from scratch but only when it’s a special flavor like pumpkin or Oreo.  

As much as I appreciate the quick store bought cake mix, I am a serious hater on store bought icing. It's not that I wont eat it (better than no icing), but you can just tell it’s not made with real butter and mass produced. Everyone should have an easy icing recipe in their back pocket to whip up instead and in my opinion, cream cheese makes everything better, so this one is a great one to start with (and it's white so you can dye it if desired).

Ingredients
1 Package of Cream Cheese
1 Stick of Slightly Softened Butter
Vanilla Extract
Confectioners’ Sugar

Directions
Bake cupcakes according to box directions.
Blend whole package of cream cheese, butter, and splash of vanilla together  (I have doubled the recipe here because I needed it for two boxes worth of cupcakes).



Gradually add confectioners’ sugar little by little as you mix until you’ve dumped in roughly three cups worth.  Add dye if you want (I used blue here) at the end and you’re done!



Scoop mixture into a piping bag and ice the cupcakes.  For this recipe I used a Wilton bag and 1M tip.  I made these for a surprise engagement party this past weekend.  Since they are the future “Mr. and Mrs. Mattens,” I ordered little “M” toothpicks from Oriental Trading that also came with 100 of those cute cupcake holders all for $5.00…such a steal!  Here is the end result.



3 comments

  1. Thanks again Erin! The cupcakes were a major hit!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. i will be opening my own cupcake shop one day... everything is better with cupcakes. and i love to make them....

    ReplyDelete

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xx E.