Cupcake Love

I'm in love with cupcakes, not so much eating them, but I love making them and I really want to learn to ice them so they look like those I see on blogs and in books. There has to be a trick to it. Don't get me wrong, I like eating them too, but I'd rather learn to master the professional icing look, so I have a pastry bag and tips on my list to Santa, now I just need a good book for beginners. If you know of any tips, secrets or books, please let me know! I'm also in love with the cupcake set I seen at Hobby Lobby, here is the spoon holder, just imagine the cookie jar! All I could afford was the spoon holder, the rest will have to come in pieces whenever I can make it to the city. But isn't it cute! I'm looking for some cupcake fabric now to make a apron, how sweet would that be!

Here is my latest attempt at frosting cupcakes, it's getting better. I made these yesterday while I was blogging. One good thing about dailup, I can multi-task! I've got a little secreat for you regarding moist cupcakes. I like to play around with a recipe now and then, and yesterday was one of those times. All I had on hand was a cheap cake mix (chocolate) that was marked half off, nothing wrong with it mind it, but I figured it might need a little something extra, so I added a teaspoon of my homemade vanilla, which is done now and totally adds to a recipe, and instead of adding the water that the box calls for, I brewed a cup of my gingerbread tea and used it instead, and it was a hit! It added just the right amount of ginger to the chocolate flavor making it one of the tastiest cupcake batches in a long time. I've also added coffee to cake mixes too with just as good results. So, don't let a boxed cake mix fool you, add ins can be fun and yummy!