Cherry Frosted Vanilla Cupcakes

I make these every Valentine's day.  Wouldn't have been nice of me to post this prior to Valentine's Day so you could have made them too?  Well, that was the plan.  Except I made them on Valentine's Day.  I know they don't rank the highest health wise, but they make me super happy.  And that has to count for something, right?

Cupcakes are just my basic White Cake recipe, baked as cupcakes for 15-20 minutes. Here's my white cake recipe:

White Cake

2 ¼ cup flour

1 ½ cup sugar

3 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

½ cup unsalted butter (at room temp.)

¾ milk

2 tsp. vanilla

4 egg whites (at room temp.)

Mix all dry ingredients.  Stir in, butter, milk and vanilla.  Mix for 2 minutes.  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well.  After eggs are added, mix another 2 minutes.  Pour into two greased circular pans to make a tier cake.  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. 

Frosting is a basic buttercream.  Only instead of adding milk, add the juice from maraschino cherries.

Frosting

Whip together the following: 

Stick of butter, softened. 

1 tsp vanilla

4-5 cups powdered sugar (I always cut the sweetness by replacing one cup of sugar with flour)

Splashes of juice from maraschino cherries until you get the desired consistency.