Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

We were throwing a baby shower for one of the girls at work. She is having a baby boy, so they decided to do the colors orange and blue (more like a mango and turquoise). I made strawberry cupcakes and dyed the frosting orange. I wanted a variety of flavors, so I decided on a simple vanilla cupcake recipe and dyed the frosting blue. I like this cupcake recipe because it is so simple and easy to make, but also really light and yummy. I think the colors all came out well, and the baby shower was a  hit!

Cupcake Ingredients:

*1 1/2 Cups Flour
*1 Cup Sugar
*1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
*1/2 Teaspoon Salt
*1/2 Cup Butter
*1/2 Cup Sour Cream
*1 Egg
*2 Egg Yolks
*1 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

*Preheat Oven to 350 Degrees F and line muffin pan with liners.

Since it was a baby shower I used the ones with little baby feet on them. I know they are pink and that the shower was for a boy baby, but I figured they would fade once baked. I didnt want to buy colored liners because it would be hard to find the exact shades of orange and blue that I wanted.

*Whisk Flour, Sugar, Baking Powder, and Salt in a bowl and set aside.

*In the bowl of your mixer, beat Butter, Sour Cream, Egg, Egg Yolks, and Vanilla.

*Add Flour mix and beat until smooth.

*Divide Batter evenly among muffin liners.

*Bake for approx. 20 minutes.

*Let cool before frosting.

Frosting Ingredients:

*1 Cup Butter
*2 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar
*1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract

*Beat Butter until smooth.

*Add Powdered Sugar one cup at a time, beating well after each addition.

*Add Vanilla and beat until light and fluffy.

*If coloring frosting, add food color.

* To get this shade of turquoise, I added about 61 drops of blue food color. (I just had the regular pack of red, blue, yellow, red).

Bridal Shower Cupcakes

My friend had her bridal shower last weekend and asked me to do the cupcakes. It was a Japanese Honeymoon theme bridal shower. I was looking for some cute cupcake wrappers that had cherry blossoms on them, but couldn't find any that I really liked. Eventually I settled on a green with burgundy vines, since those are the wedding colors. For flavors I did one dozen Strawberry and one dozen Orange Chai Spice. And to top it all off, I got some really cute edible cherry blossoms from Etsy.

4th of July Cupcakes!

I am going to a BBQ today to celebrate 4th of July. I was going to make a pie, but the cherries were really expensive. I had already bought some strawberries on sale, so I decided to make strawberry mini cupcakes and decorate them for the 4th of July. I dripped some blue and red food color into the frosting bag and went from there. It was pretty messy! And they didn't come out exactly as I wanted, but something to practice on for next time. Still I think you can get the gist of what I was trying to do, and they came out pretty cute!

Thing 1 Thing 2 Dr. Seuss Theme Babyshower Cupcakes

A friend of mine was helping her sister throw a baby shower last weekend and asked if I would make the cupcakes. It was a Dr. Seuss theme baby shower for a baby boy. She sent me some links of ideas for Dr. Seuss theme cupcakes. The choices were Lorax Trees or Thing 1 Thing 2 Cupcakes. hey decided on Thing 1 Thing 2, because they were very cute, and fit the rest of the decorations better. I made half chocolate cupcakes with marshmallow frosting and the other half vanilla with vanilla buttercream. I hunted down red cupcake liners, which was actually kind of hard. Most of the places had the fun themed liners and not just basic colors. I finally found the at Michaels. Then I printed out circles that said "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" that were attached to the front. FYI...tape doesn't stick, glue is needed. And for the crazy hair, I found tubs of blue cotton candy at the Dollar Tree! I bought 5 tubs because I didn't know how much was needed. I went through 1 1/2 tubs for about 30 cupcakes and left the 1/2 opened container and one full unopened container if touch ups were needed. I wanted to set the cupcakes up close to the start of the shower, but got the time wrong, so I was an hour earlier than I thought I wanted to be. The cotton candy melts, so don't add it right before you need to. Also, be careful when handling it, because just the contact with your hands can make it start to get hot and melt. But overall, I think the cotton candy hair was the perfect touch to these cupcakes.

Girl Baby Shower Cupcakes

I just wanted to post some pictures of cupcakes I did last weekend for a friends baby shower. Per the mom-to-be's request, I made Pink Lemonade Cupcakes and Shirley Temple Cupcakes. She gave me free reign on the rest of the decorations. There really was no theme, so I went with lots and pink and baby girl! I used random cupcake liners I found at Party City that were baby shower theme, with little foot prints all over. I ordered some really cute wrappers online which said "its a girl" and were just pink and cute. I love the idea of the cupcake wrapper. You can just buy cheap, generic, whatever liners since they always fade during baking anyways. But the wrappers you put on after the baking is complete so they look fresh and lovely for the event. I topped the cupcakes with "Its a Girl" picks, and 2 different kinds of pink sparkly sprinkles.

Chocolate Chip Cake or Cupcakes

I made Chocolate Chip Cupcakes a few weeks ago to take to a friends house. There were some left over so I took them in to work, hoping that everyone would finish them off. Coincidentally my boss was holding her sons birthday party the next weekend and asked if I could make a cake for the party. She had already bought a topper to put on the cake, so I didn't even have to decorate. Since she had sampled the chocolate chip cupcakes, she asked if I could do that. So I used the same recipe for the cake as I did the cupcakes.

Cake/Cupcake Ingredients:

* 3 1/4 Cups Cake Flour
* 1 1/2 Tablespoons Baking Powder
* 1/4 Teaspoon Salt
* 1 3/4 Sticks of Butter
* 1 3/4 Cups Sugar
* 1 Cup Milk
* 1 Tablespoon Vanilla
* 5 Large Egg Whites
* 2 Cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

***If you don't have Cake Flour, substitute 2 Tablespoons of Flour with Cornstarch for every Cup of Flour.***

* Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F.

* If making Cupcakes, line 2 muffin pans; If making Cake, Grease and Flour 3 Round Cake Pans.

* In a bowl, combine the Flour, Baking Powder, and Salt. Set Aside.

* In the bowl of your mixer, cream the Butter and Sugar.

* Mix together Milk and Vanilla.

* Add dry ingredients to Butter Mix in 3 additions, alternating with the Milk in 2 additions.

* In a clean bowl of your mixer, Beat the egg Whites until stiff peaks form.

* Carefully fold the Egg Whites into the rest of the batter.

* Stir in Chocolate Chips.

* Divide Batter into Cake Pans, or Muffin Pans.

* Bake for approx. 30 minutes for Cake; Bake for approx. 22 minutes for Cupcakes.

* Cool before Frosting.

Buttercream Frosting Ingredients:

* 1 Cup Butter
* 3 Cups Powdered Sugar
* 1 Teaspoon Vanilla

* In the bowl of your Mixer, beat butter until smooth.

* Add Powdered Sugar, one cup at a time, beating well after each addition.

* Add Vanilla and beat until light and fluffy.

* At this point you can frost the Cake or Cupcakes.

* This was all I did for the cupcakes. The cake I added chocolate frosting between the layers.

Chocolate Frosting:

* 4 Ounces Unsweetened Chocolate
* 2/3 Cup Butter
* 1 1/3 Cup Powdered Sugar
* 1 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla

* Melt the Chocolate in a heat proof bowl and set aside to cool.

* Beat the Butter until smooth.

* Add the Sugar and beat until light and fluffy.

* Add the Chocolate and Vanilla and beat until incorporated.

* Frost Cake!

* Enjoy!