Santa Hat Cupcakes

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line cupcake liners in a muffin pan. Makes about 18 cupcakes. Can also use my chocolate cupcake recipe or brownie recipe for base.
2. Mix butter and sugar in a bowl and then mix in eggs.
3. Add flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Add milk and then vanilla extract.
5. Stir well, and divide evenly between 18 cupcake liners.
6. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool and then transfer to a wire rack.
7. While the cupcakes are baking, make the buttercream frosting. In a medium-sized bowl, combine the powdered sugar, butter, vanilla extract, and milk. Mix together with a spatula and then use an egg beater or mixer machine if you have one. This makes the frosting smoother and creamy.  Start with 3 cups of powdered sugar and if you need more, then add another ½ cup. If you want more frosting, you can double the amounts for the frosting recipe.
8. Add the frosting to a frosting decorator tool or a zip lock bag. If using a zip lock bag, then seal the bag and use scissors to cut off a smaller corner of the bag. 
9. Put a little bit of frosting in the middle of each cupcake so the strawberry will stay on the cupcake. Stick a strawberry on top of each cupcake. 
10. Pipe the frosting all around each strawberry so it looks like a Santa hat. To finish it off, add 1 pipe of frosting at each tip of the strawberries.