Christmas is such a wonderful time of the year. It is time to spend with those you love. I love Christmas because I try to slow down and spend more times with my grown-up babies. We get up late, have yummy breakfast together, we watch tv, sometimes we play games, and we bake;-) Lisa and I love to spend time in the kitchen trying on new recipes, and playing with ingredients. This week, because of the Children’s Cooking Class we offered, we played with cupcakes. You should do the same… It is fun!!!!

Ingredients: 1 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder, 1/4 tsp of salt, 6 Tbsp of butter, 2 large eggs, 1/2 cup of whole milk, 2 Tbsp of vanilla extracts, 1/2 cup of sugar.

Turn the oven to 350. In a bowl, mix the flour, the salt and the baking powder and set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat the sugar and the butter until it becomes light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time beating well. Add the flour mixture in 3 times, alternating with the milk ( 2 times). Beat well until well combined, but do not overbeat.

Divide the batter evenly among the 12 cupcakes and cook for 13-15 for the big cupcakes. Let the cupcakes cool before decorating with the frosting.

Frosting: 12 oz of cream cheese at room temperature, 2 tbsp of unsalted butter at room temperature, 1/2 tsp of vanilla, 1 cup of powder sugar, red coloring.

In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, then add the sugar and finally the butter at little at a time. Then add a few drops of red coloring to make the frosting a light pink color. If the frosting is too soft, refrigerate for 15 minutes. With a knife, spread the frosting all over the top of each cupcakes.

For the decoration: 1 red frosting, 1 green frosting, min Reese cups, pretzels.

Using the various colored icings, decorate your cupcakes as you wish by making swirls, or lines, or whatever you feel like. Place one Reese cup to make it look like the top of the ornament. Add a little of the frosting on top of the Reese cup and place a broken pretzel to make it look like a hook. Et Voila!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!