Sasha's Kitchen: Hot Lips Cinnamon Cupcakes

I am so behind in posting stuff. I swear I have been cooking and baking, but there's so much stuff in my back-log of things to post - raspberry frozen souffles, dark chocolate lava cakes, scallion pancakes, and my fabulous homemade ravioli with ramps. I'll catch up, but how about sharing some cupcakes first.

The inspiration for these cupcakes was to create a cinnamon cupcake with a delicious honey-cinnamon frosting. I decided to give them a sexy "hot lips" theme that seemed to go with cinnamon well, so I piped red lips on each cupcakes using a fine tip on my frosting bag. They are intended to be finished by placing a perimeter of red hots around the border of each cupcake. But, alas, I forgot to pick them up. But, use your imagination, or add them if you make this recipe at home. Pucker up and enjoy!

Sasha's "Pucker-Up" Cinnamon Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup granulated sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Sasha's Honey-Cinnamon Frosting
1 stick of unsalted butter
4 oz cream cheese
3 cups confectioner's sugar
2 T freshly made, organic honey
1 tsp cinnamon
drop of gel food coloring

To prepare the cupcakes, mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Beat the butter for about three minutes with the granulated sugar in the basin of your stand mixer. Beat in the three eggs. Alternate adding and mixing in the dry ingredients and the milk on medium speed and combine until smooth. Fill lined silicon cupcake molds 3/4 of the way to the top. Bake in an oven preheated to 350 for 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting, beat the confectioners's sugar, honey, butter and cream cheese in a stand mixer on high speed for several minutes until smooth. Beat in the cinnamon. Add a drop of gel food coloring if you want any color different from the color the cinnamon gives which is very natural. I used an Ivory gel based food color, which is actually very similar.

Pipe on the frosting using a wide tip, fluted frosting bag. Using a very small tip, pipe the lips to have nice puckered shapes.