Birthday Cupcakes!

I found these cute cupcake liners in the holiday section and just knew I'd be using these for my birthday cake. Cupcakes are so much easier to store than a full size cake. And much cuter when decorated with lots of pretty colors!

Too bad those liners don't keep their color when baked. If I'd known how they'd turn out I would have saved my 2 bucks. Anyway, I made a buttercream frosting (from scratch!) using a recipe I found from Bakerella via The Pioneer Woman - both great cooking blogs! I scooped a bit out and colored it and frosted 3 or 4 cupcakes and made the next color. I made a pretty lavendar, but it photgraphed brown, so I took it out. I arranged the cupcakes into a balloon bunch and added a bit of ribbon. Unfortunately, the outdoor light was just as yucky as the indoor light. And the cupcakes were just too yummy to hold onto to wait for better light. Oh well. There's always next year :)