Sunday Brunch - {Halloween cupcakes}

We just got back from our big Halloween party a few hours ago.  The past few days have been a whirlwind of crafty activity, all leading up to today's big event.  From cutting out bat templates, to making my owl costume, to heading up to the craft store for a last minute muslin purchase (that we didn't end up even using), it's been busy and crazy around here!

But not crazy enough to stop me from making cupcakes!  Normally, I would just figure that those last few days before the party will be hectic enough, and I spare myself any future stress by just ordering cupcakes or whatever party dessert we're having.  But this time, the Bachsters saw these cute little tiny murderous knives and just had to have them.  So, I found myself making 5 dozen cupcakes this morning.

I've made David's yellow cake from allrecipes.com many, many times.  It's my go-to birthday cake, and it's delicious.  But I've never made the recipe as cupcakes before.  No problem - just cook them about 15 minutes, and keep checking them if they're not quite done.  I definitely wanted to make a tried and true recipe - no last minute recipe experimentation here.

A few tips I learned from the many comments about this recipe on the allrecipes website are first, have all your cold ingredients at room temperature.  Also, make sure to cream together the butter and sugar really well.  I usually just let it go for a few minutes with a hand mixer.  I follow the recipe to a T and it's always great.

I did cheat a little: I bought icing from our grocery store's bakery department.  And it saved me loads of time, time that I spent learning how to make pipe cleaner spiders and making giant candy shaped favors.  I promise to share some shots later this week!

-Cheryl