Cupcakes for the New Year

I found this recipe for Sparkling Cider Cupcakes on a guest post on Tatertots and Jello and decided they sounded too yummy not to try! Basically, you just replace the water in a yellow cake mix with Sparkling Cider, as well as the milk in the frosting, however I did double the amount of butter called for in the frosting recipe provided by Julie and Tara of Crae's Creations (I used 2 pounds of powdered sugar and 2 sticks of butter, plus a little more than half a cup of cider). They turned out very tasty!  A spoonful of apple pie filling in a scooped-out hollow in the top of the cupcake adds a tantalizing taste and texture. I didn't use the printable cupcake toppers supplied with the post because I had more of a blue theme going, but found some by searching for cupcake toppers on One Pretty Thing. I used a large star tip to pipe the frosting, and added some blue and white sprinkles.

I also brought one to a lunch for my good friend, Robin, and wrapped it up in a cute blue snowflake cello bag with some glitzy blue ribbon (I added a 3 1/4" square cardboard insert in the bottom of the bag so the cupcake wouldn't get smooshed). There was a 25-minute wait for a table at Olive Garden, and quite a few of the servers stopped to gush over the pretty cupcake - some of them wanted the recipe and others just wanted to take that cupcake home with them :-)