What icing recipe do you use for cupcakes??????? And any filling suggestions????? My BBF is having a bridal shower for her soon-to-be SIL and she is letting me play around with cupcakes.

Thanks!!!

do you use a normal buttercream icing? The cupcakes I try always seem so much lighter and fluffier.

On most of my cupcakes, I make my regular buttercream but cut down a little on the sugar and add 1 cup Marshmallow Fluff to make it lighter and fluffier.

For chocolate, I like the Barefoot Contessa's chocolate cupcake recipe (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_35861,00.html?rsrc=search) - the frosting for these is pretty tasty too.

For carrot, I like this recipe on the epicurious site: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/101357

For white and yellow, I use my favorite cake recipes from my Cook's Illustrated cookbook, I think they are called the Classic White Layer Cake and the Rich and Tender Yellow Layer Cake. I think both of those recipes have been posted somewhere in the forums if you are interested.

I also like some of the recipes in The Cupcake Doctor cookbook (doctored cake mixes), but not everyone likes to use the mixes.

For frostings, I like Rick's Special Buttercream Frosting (http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-884-Ricks-Special-Buttercream-Frosting.html) for cupcakes. It is a fluffier buttercream that still pipes well. I also like to use boiled or 7 minute frosting.

As for filling, ding dong cake filling, cream cheese mousse, and nutella mousse are my favorites. Although, with the last cupcakes I made, I used miniature Reeses peanut cups as the filling (pushed them into the middle and baked them up). They were really good and it was alot easier than piping the filling in. Caramel Hershey kisses make a good "filling" too.

Sorry for the long reply. I mis-read your original post and thought you wanted recipes for cupcakes too.

I didn't mean to sidetrack your original request.