Recipe Box Friday: Piggy Cupcakes

I made these piggy cupcakes a few weeks ago for my dear friend, Hope’s, baby shower.

BeautyFrosting's Piggy Cupcakes

BeautyFrosting's Piggy Cupcakes

How’d I choose pigs? Well, to celebrate a true southern-turned SoCal transplant-she was given a “BABY-Q”. Get it?

Baby-Q-themed Piggy Cupcakes

Baby-Q-themed Piggy Cupcakes

The invite (above) was super cute with a baby pig cartoon on it and, well, it just seemed the way to go!

So many of you liked the pics of the piggy cupcakes on my BeautyFrosting Facebook page, that I knew I had to share the recipe with y’all.
So here you go!

Piggy Cupcakes: Super fun & delicious!

Pig Cupcakes: Super fun & delicious!

BeautyFrosting’s Piggy Cupcakes

As for the cake, I used my Mom’s Strawberry cake recipe which I will feature NEXT Friday. But here’s how you make the piggies.

What you need for your piggies:

Pink or Chocolate Cupcake Paper Cups

24 Baked Cupcakes of your choice

1 Batch of Buttercream Frosting (My favorite recipe is below!)

32 Jet-Puffed StrawberryMallows (1 8-ounce bag)

48 Milk Chocolate Chips

Pink Food Coloring

Red Food Coloring

Gettin’ Crafty with Cupcakes:

Let your cupcakes cool and mix up your frosting.

Tint the icing, by adding the pink food coloring, til you reach a nice bubblegum piglet-pink hue. Mix until perfectly pink.

Frost each cupcake making sure to make the “face” of the pig as smooth as possible. I prefer using a small cake frosting spatula.

Cut your marshmallows into halves.

Use half for the nose with the non-sticky side facing up in the middle of the cupcake.

Make the piggy’s eyes by placing the chocolate chips point down into the frosting (with the flat side up).

To make the ears, take the other half of the marshmallow and cut into two. Pinch each end to make pointy piggy ears.

Take a toothpick or chopstick and dip it in red food coloring. Make 2 dots on the nose marshmallow to make nostrils. You can re-do this again if the colour is too pale.

*Here’s my favorite, go-to, creamy buttercream recipe.

BeautyFrosting’s Creamy ButterCream Frosting Recipe

¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup Heavy Whipping Cream

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

4¼ to 4½ cups confectioners (powdered) sugar

 

xoxo,
BF

BF Asks: If you make ‘em, please send me a pic! Have fun!!

 

 

High-Low 7

If it seems like I’ve been a little off this week, you’ll have to forgive me!

My family has been in town (from Texas) for the past week, I had a show at Hotel Cafe to prepare for and it has just been a crazy few weeks.

Any of you lovely things feel like that too?

I will say I was thrilled to get 3 emails from readers saying that they now are playing their own versions of my Daily High-Low game with their families each night.

Love that! That’s a high for me, itself! Such a fun way to get the communication going – whether you’re 3 or 103. Try it for yourself with your loved ones!

Here is this week’s High-Low.

 HIGHS

1) I was on Cloud 9 with my mom, from Dallas, in town. She drove out with her friend, Ron, and Miss Ellie’s brother Reagan, along with 30 boxes from her garage! Can anyone say Yard Sale next weekend?

The smiles that make my world go 'round: My brother & mom in LA

And with my brother living out here for the summer, it has been a family-filled, lovely summer. I’m gonna hate to see it end.

Brother & me

2) Strawberry Cupcakes with my signature Buttercream Filling for my Hotel Cafe show

BeautyFrosting's Texas Strawberry Cupcakes

I’ll be including the recipe for these cuties on Friday!

3) Being blown away by Blow Angels.

The angels of Blow Angels: Ziggy and Libni

I’ll have the full write-up for this L.A. primping palace on Thursday. Seriously, I was sooooo impressed and left there singing “I Feel Pretty” to myself – which was just what I needed to feel in time for my show on Saturday night.

They gave me Charlie’s Angels winged hair, lashes and the most glamorous makeup application I’ve had in years. And it fits within my budget! My new favorite place!

4) My show at Hotel Cafe! All of my friends and family were there and it was a night to remember. Gosh, I love my band! And I got to invite my friends, Jeremy Little and Tournament of Hearts to play with me. A friend-filled night!

Yours truly at Hotel Cafe

5) Impromptu dance party

I looooove impromptu dance parties and after a stressful week, a post-show midnight dance party, with friends, at The Room was just what the doctor of fun ordered!

Impromptu midnight dance party at The Room
 6) Piggy cupcakes for Hope’s Baby-Q Shower! It was a pig theme and they turned out perfect! More on that fun day later.

Piggy Cupcakes for a pig-themed Baby-Q shower

*I’ll feature the recipe next Friday 8/3.

LOW

There’s only one low. But it’s not just mine to bear. That’s why it feels so trivial to even mention “the highs” this week. It doesn’t get lower than this.

It’s a low I, unfortunately, share with our grieving nation. Like most of you, I cannot stop grieving for the victims of the horrific massacre that happened in Aurora, Colorado on Friday during The Dark Night Rises midnight showing.

It breaks my heart. Not only did people needlessly die but the innocent enjoyment that movie theaters have always provided us has been tarnished forever. This hateful, terrifying incident will forever live in the darkest corner of our subconscious when we see a film in a dark theater with our backs to the door.

I refuse to utter the killer’s name because I don’t want to give him the pleasure of feeling “famous”. He’ll get enough of that thanks to the press.

But I think there’s a special place in hell for a person who murders and maims people and shatters a nation’s innocence forever.

My heart and prayers go out to all of the victims (living and those who passed) and their families and friends as they try to see past the pain and through their tears.

Contrary to what the press says, there is no making sense of this. None at all.