Batter Up!

The Major League Baseball Playoffs are in full swing, with the Red Sox versus the Tigers and the Dodgers versus the Cardinals, it's time for a baseball party! Sliders (tip: 1 pound ground beef makes 12 sliders), chips, and cracker jacks makes a fun menu, but baseball cupcakes make it a grand slam! While I have nothing against store-bought cake mix, I do detest that miserable excuse for frosting in a can. Yuck! In fact, buy the cake mix, but make James Beard's Butter Cream Frosting, instead. It's so easy! No boiling, no cooking, just cream together butter and confectioners' sugar, mix in some heavy cream and whatever flavorings (e.g., vanilla, instant coffee, liqueur, maple syrup, orange juice, etc.) to create a delicious frosting that will send that canned frosting back to the minors! 

These "Baseball Cupcakes with Butter Cream Frosting" are so cute and just what the catcher called for! In addition, you can add orange food coloring to make "Basketball Cupcakes," or yellow for "Tennis Ball Cupcakes," or make half the frosting black to make "Soccer Ball Cupcakes," etc. It's an easy and fun way to celebrate whatever sport you're into! Oh yeah, one more thing, Go Cards!

Baseball Cupcakes with Homemade Butter Cream Frosting

Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the Cupcakes

1 box cupcake mix of choice

White cupcake liners

1 recipe James Beard Butter Cream Frosting (follows)

2 red gel icing writing tubes (available in the cake section of most grocers)

For James Beard's Butter Cream Frosting

1/3 cup softened butter

3 cups confectioners' sugar

3-4 tablespoons heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (for alternative flavorings: use 1 tsp. liqueur, or 1 tbs. instant coffee, or 1/4 cup maple syrup omitting the cream, or 1/3 cup orange juice omitting the cream, etc.)

Directions:

For the Cupcakes

Make cupcakes according to package directions. Allow to cool on wire racks before decorating.

For the Butter Cream Frosting

Cream together the butter and sugar. Then vigorously stir in the heavy cream and flavorings of choice. (For these baseball cupcakes, I just used vanilla extract.) Spread the frosting evenly over each cupcake. Allow the frosting to set. Using the gel icing writing tubes, decorate each cupcake with two semicircles, then add the "stitching" along the semicircles. How fun!