my kitchen: baby shower cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

When I made cinnamon rolls for the first time a few months ago, I made cream cheese frosting for the first time and fell in love. Cream cheese frosting from scratch definitely tastes so much better than the canned variety, as it's not as artificially sweet and you can adjust the cream cheese amount to taste. 

So when we were having a baby shower for my friend, I wanted to make some carrot cake cupcakes and of course with that flavor, you gotta have cream cheese frosting.

I kept it simple, frosting half of them in white and using a blue Wilton gel to write on top, and the other half I dipped in blue sanding sugar and piped more white frosting on top from a ziploc bag with a tiny hole cut out. I've seen a few recipes using less butter and adding honey, so I'm going to have to give that a try next time! Congrats again to my friends J and M!

EASY CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup of butter (1 stick), room temperature     (I used 1/3 cup)
8 oz of Philly cream cheese (1 package)
2-3 cups of powdered sugar                               (I used 2 cups)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
pinch of salt

METHOD
1. With an electric mixer, mix the butter and cream cheese together, about 3 minutes on medium speed until very smooth. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure even mixing. (I actually forgot to do this first and just dumped everything together. It was still ok. I also mashed/chopped up the cream cheese a bit to make it easier to stir and warmed up the butter in the microwave. I also eyeballed the butter since I didn't have it by the "stick" in Taipei, and I think I had less than 1 stick, so I'm guessing 1/3 cup. Many recipes call for the whole stick, but I like the cream cheese flavor over the butter flavor.)

2 Add the vanilla extract and mix. Slowly add the powdered sugar. Keep adding until you get to desired sweetness and thickness. (I added 1 cup and it definitely wasn't sweet enough. I thought with 2 cups it was good. Some might add another 1/2-1 cup of powdered sugar if you prefer it sweeter)

3 Either spread on with a blunt knife or spatula, or spoon into a piping bag to decorate your cake or cupcake. (And enjoy!)