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by Amanda Formaro of FamilyCorner.com

One of the easiest treats to dress up for holidays and birthdays is the cupcake. All you need is food coloring, cake decorator gel and frosting, and a little imagination.

You will need:
your favorite box cake, any flavor
red food coloring
white icing (recipe below)
red, pink and green decorator gel
red, pink and white decorator frosting
flower decorating tip
red & white sprinkles
cupcake liners

Prepare cake mix as directed. If desired, you can make pink cupcakes with either a flavored mix, such as cherry, or add a few drops of red food coloring to a prepared white mix. Put cupcake liners into muffin tins and fill liners as directed on box cake mix. Bake as directed and allow to cool thoroughly before frosting and decorating.

Prepare the white icing by following the recipe below. When finished, separate into two dishes. Add a few drops of red food coloring to one bowl and stir until thoroughly mixed. You should have one bowl of pink icing and one bowl of white.

White Buttercream Icing
16-ounce package confectioners sugar
6 tbsp butter or margarine, softened
3 to 4 tbsp milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt

In a medium bowl, with mixer at medium-low speed, beat all ingredients until the icing is smooth and of easy spreading consistency. Add a few drops of red food coloring, 3 for light pink, 6 or so for dark pink.

Decorate
There's really not much to decorating cupcakes, especially in the eyes of your admiring children. Just a dollop of frosting is artistic enough for them! Here are a few simple tips that will help you decorate your holiday cupcakes.

Piping - Using the flower tip on the decorator frosting, pipe a border around the frosted cupcake. Use contrasting colors to decorate (red piping on white frosting, white piping on pink, etc).

Sprinkles - The beauty of sprinkles is that there is no perfection involved. Simply drop them and let them lay where they fall. Use contrasting colors, and mix colors when pleasing.

Shapes - Use the decorator gels to "draw" on heart shapes or to add flowers and leaves to a cupcake. You can also use these to dot around the outside edge of one of the treats. These are also ideal for writing words, such as "love," "be mine" and "kiss."

Frosting only - Use the two different colored frostings to decorate one cupcake. Spread half of a cupcake with white, and carefully spread the other half with pink. You can also spread a full coat of white on and dot the center with pink. Get creative and try swirls or other shapes using frosting.

Be sure to store your cupcakes in a tightly covered container so they do not harden or go stale. That is, if they last that long!

Amanda Formaro is the entrepreneurial mother of four children. She is also the owner of FamilyCorner.com Magazine at http://familycorner.com where you will find recipes, crafts, family activities, parenting advice, home & garden, and plenty more. Be sure to visit the bustling message board community to make some new friends!