Mardi Gras Cupcakes

As you know, we hosted an Academy Awards party this past Sunday night.

But one party wasn’t enough for us this weekend. We got invited to our friends’ annual Mardi Gras Party on Saturday night. (Time to shop for masks and jewelry!)

The whole point of Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday before Ash Wednesday) is to eat a lot of sweets before the fast that begins on Wednesday. So, we were definitely up for living it up! (Our friends go all out, and it’s a blast.)

Our contribution to the party was these chocolate cupcakes with swirled frosting. They look fancy, but they’re really easy to make.

Since the colors of Mardi Gras are purple, green and gold, and I wanted the cupcakes to look festive, and I thought the best way to squeeze all three colors in was to swirl two of them together and add a gold chocolate candy on top as the finishing touch.

Just make your favorite cupcake recipe. I made chocolate cupcakes, and whipped up a vanilla buttercream frosting.

To make the frosting, you’ll need: 2 lb. powdered sugar, 2 sticks soften unsalted butter, 1/3 cup milk, 2 tsp. vanilla, green and purple food coloring, gold chocolate candies and a piping bag.

Beat the butter until it’s creamy. Then mix in the vanilla and milk. Gradually add in the powdered sugar.

Divide frosting into two bowls. Add food coloring and mix well.

Fill one side of the piping bag with purple frosting, and the other side with green frosting.

Hold bag fairly upright, squeeze, and wrap it around the cupcake a few times.

Stop squeezing and pull up.

Top off with the gold chocolate candy.

I hope you’ll give these a try. They were a big hit at the party, and I have a feeling they’ll be a going to the party again next year.

Hope you like them, and would love for you to pin away!

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