What's a cupcake with out some frosting?

Tonight it was one of those rare times when all the kids were actually quiet in the house. They were sitting down (amazing I know!) watching a movie before bedtime. So I decided I'd whip up a batch of cupcakes. I remembered I had some cute Halloween cupcake liners that I got on clearance after last years season and knew the kids would love them. I dug out what I needed to make the cake, water, oil, eggs... and yes my box cake mix! I have a newborn around, there isn't THAT much time for cakes from scratch. Of course once I bought out my mixer, there were no more sitting kids! But one thing I love is baking with my bacon babies.

I decided it wasn't in my best interest to frost the cupcakes just before the kids bedtime. Yes they are sweet kids, giving them sugar at bedtime makes for a long night of Mama Bacon putting kids back in bed! So once everyone was tucked in and snoozing I dug out a frosting recipe. I have a binder with lots of my favorite recipes in it, it's so full it's falling apart. Not only are the pages full of recipes, I have sticky notes and scrap paper just stuck where ever I can find a spot with recipes on it. When I opened the book up tonight, this little paper fell out at me and what was on it? A butter cream frosting recipe! I couldn't argue with what jumps out of the cookbook at me so I whipped it up!

Butter Cream Frosting:
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup shortening
1/8 tsp salt
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
5 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk

Throw it all in a bowl and whip it all up until fluffy. If it seems too runny or soft for what you'd like, add extra powdered sugar, or if it's too stiff, add more milk.

This is a great recipe. It tastes identical to vanilla frosting you'd buy in the can at the store. You can color it to your desire with food coloring too, like the orange for halloween I used tonight. And if you thicken up the frosting a bit (just keep adding more powdered sugar), it's works great in a pastry bag for piping frosting on your cake. See!

And what's a cupcake with out some sprinkles? (or jimmies if you grew up in Grandma Bacon's household!)

Tomorrow I will have 3 very happy kids who keep asking the same question. "can we have cupcakes for breakfast?" You gotta love kids! Now before you think I've gone completely off the deep end, after all I just had a baby 5 weeks ago, take a deep breath. Here's the other 1/2 of the cupcakes.

I had decided to try to make all the cupcakes fancy like you'd find in the store, there's no arguing with buying the store one's if mom can make them just as good if not better at home right?! Who am I kidding, it's CAKE and FROSTING. My kids won't care if it looks like I bought them, they just want to eat them up!