
1-2-3-4 Cupcakes
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups sifted flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. In a separate bowl, sift the flour with the baking powder and salt. Add the eggs one at a time to the butter mixture, beating at a medium to high speed. Turn off the mixer and add the flour mixture, then turn to the lowest speed and add the milk and vanilla. Spoon into cupcake liners and bake at 375 F for 15-20 min.
For the "torches," I put cake-style ice cream cones into a muffin pan, spooned in the batter to about 2/3 full, then baked them at 325 F for 30 min.
We iced them with the Butter Cream Frosting recipe also from American Cookery:
1/3 cup softened butter
3 cups confectioners sugar
3-4 tablespoons cream (or milk)
1 tsp vanilla
Cream together the butter and sugar, and vigorously stir in the cream. Flavor with vanilla.
We tinted the frosting into the colors we needed for the rings, and orange for the torch flame (accented with yellow and red colored sugar). They looked great and were a big hit! Go Team USA!!