Cupcakes are hot

They made the cover in a recent Winter issue of Taste of Home magazine. They featured in a 2007 Reader's Digest "100 Best" article. And in the April 09 Family Circle's recipe contest, the winners in the Cakes and Desserts divisions were both cupcake recipes.
The trend seems to be huge gobs of frosting. Fine with me.
My sister suggested we make these for a family party. Hers was the vision of cupcakes in bold colors. We just made them from a mix. We whipped up our own frosting with shortening, butter, powdered sugar. Then for each cupcake we used a knife to spread a thin layer of frosting for a base, then we piped on the stars using a very large pipe tip. The final touch was sprinkling them with clear sugar ... also my sister's inspiration. They went like, well ... cupcakes.