Birthday Cupcake Order

A couple days ago a friend of mine from High School asked me to make some cupcakes for her Boss' birthday. She wanted vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting so I decided to use this recipe which is my favorite go to vanilla cupcake and buttercream. Not quite as easy as these, but when I'm filling an order I like to do everything from scratch! 

She told me her Boss' favorite colors were purple and teal so I used my Americolor Food Colors to tint the frosting to those colors! I love using White Pearl Candy Beads I think they dress up a cupcake and tend to look better than just sprinkles. 

I needed to be able to transport these about 10 miles, already decorated, so I melted some white chocolate and used it as "glue" to keep the cupcakes in their place in the box so that I wouldn't end up with any tipped over or smushed! I like to use white chocolate on white boxes because I think it looks nicer when the cupcakes are taken out then milk chocolate does. 

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Vanilla Cake/Cupcakes and Buttercream

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter

4 eggs

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

3 cups flour- sifted

3½ tsp. baking powder

1 cup milk

⅓cup heavy cream 

Vanilla Buttercream:

1 cup butter

4-5 cups powdered sugar- sifted

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

3-4 tbsp. heavy cream

Directions

Cupcakes:

1.    Preheat oven to 350º, line cupcake pans with paper liners.

2.    In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3.    Add eggs one at a time, being sure to mix well after each addition.

4.    In a separate bowl whisk together flour and baking powder.

5.    With mixer on low slowly add flour mixture to butter, mix well.

6.    Add milk and heavy cream and beat on medium until well incorporated.

7.    Divide batter between cups, place pan in oven and immediately turn it down to 325º. Bake 15-20 minutes.

Buttercream:

1.    In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter until smooth.

2.    With mixer on low, add powdered sugar, once incorporated beat on medium.

3.    Beat in vanilla extract.

4.    Beat in heavy cream using only amount necessary to reach the desired consistency.

5.    Using food coloring, tint frosting to desired colors.

Thanks for coming, stay awhile, and return often! xoxo

Super Easy Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes

There is nothing better than a fluffy, moist vanilla cupcake--especially when they are super easy to make! And let me tell you, yumm! These are just that! Starting with a box mix makes these so easy and yet they are delicious and don't have the taste or texture of a normal box mix cupcake!

These whipped up to be a nice thick batter so I once again used my cookie scoop to fill the cups. The cookie scoop I bought was like $8 or $9 dollars and it is by far one of the best "tools" I've ever bought! It is so convenient and so much cleaner than trying to spoon batter from the bowl to each cup and trying to make them even! 

I tend to bake my vanilla cupcakes a little longer than I would another flavor because I like when they get golden brown and slightly crisp on top... but definitely watch them closely, they can quickly go from deliciously golden brown to disgustingly burnt. 

Although chocolate, strawberry, or some other flavor buttercream or cream cheese frosting can be tasty, I LOVE vanilla buttercream on vanilla cupcakes. Call me plain jane if you must, but it is simply divine! 

Super Easy Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

1 box of vanilla cake mix

3 eggs

½ cup melted butter-cooled

¾ cup milk

¼ cup heavy cream

Frosting:

1 can of buttercream

1 tsp. vanilla

1-2 tbsp. heavy cream

3-4 cups powdered sugar-sifted

Directions

Cupcakes:

1.     Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.

2.     Add cake mix, eggs, butter, milk and heavy cream to the bowl of your stand mixer.

3.     Beat on medium for 2-3 minutes, scraping bowl as needed.

4.     Divide between cups, about ⅔ full.

5.     Place pans in oven and immediately turn the oven down to 325º. Bake for 16-20 minutes, turning half way through if needed.

Frosting:

1.     Add buttercream, vanilla and heavy cream to stand mixer.

2.     Beat on medium until well mixed.

3.     Add powder sugar until desired consistency.

Purple Ombre Birthday Cake

Last Sunday my favorite little girl turned 10 and we didn't get to celebrate with her since we live about 90 miles away. She came tonight to spend the weekend and so I decided to make her a cake and decorate to celebrate the big one-oh!! Double digits is a big deal! I love making cupcakes, it's kinda my thing- but I wanted to do something special to celebrate so I decided to make a cake! And what's better than an ombre cake?!?!? 

I used my favorite go-to vanilla cupcake recipe and just doubled it to ensure I'd have enough cake! I also used my favorite, super easy vanilla buttercream and not only is it delicious, but it is so pretty!! It even earned me a free hug and kiss-- and I usually have to hold her down and tickle her for those! 

I made one large batch of vanilla cake and then divided it as evenly as possible 5 ways. I left one white and did the other 4 in varying shades of purple to create the ombre effect. I only have 2 9-inch rounds so it was quite time consuming, but other than that, it was very easy. 

I started by building the cake by stacking the layers with thin layers of buttercream in between each layer. I then did a think crumb coat to ensure I would have a smooth surface to work with. After I crumb coated it I put it in the fridge for a couple hours while I did something else, even though 30 minutes would probably be enough time. 

After I made the buttercream I started by adding a little purple and then piping on the light layers, and then I added a little more, piped it on, and then more and did the final darker layers. It would probably be smarter to work at the bottom and go up, but I really didn't want to have to divide the icing into separate bowels to color it. 

After it was done I again chilled it to let the frosting set and pulled it out just before she got here to add her personalized candles! I can't believe my little baby niece is 10!!! Makes me want to cry! 

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Vanilla Cake and Buttercream

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter

4 eggs

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

3 cups flour- sifted

3½ tsp. baking powder

1 cup milk

⅓cup heavy cream 

Buttercream:

1 cup butter

4-5 cups powdered sugar- sifted

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

3-4 tbsp. heavy cream

Directions

Cupcakes:

1.    Preheat oven to 350º, line and grease 9-inch round pan(s).

2.    In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3.    Add eggs one at a time, being sure to mix well after each addition.

4.    In a separate bowl whisk together flour and baking powder.

5.    With mixer on low slowly add flour mixture to butter, mix well.

6.    Add milk and heavy cream and beat on medium until well incorporated.

7.    Split batter evenly between 4 bowls and the amount left in stand mixer.

8.    Using food coloring, tint cake batter to colors of your choice.

9.    Using a frosting spatula evenly spread each color into a separate 9-inch round pan.

10. Depending on thickness of layers, bake for about 13-15 minutes.

Buttercream:

1.    In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter until smooth.

2.    With mixer on low, add powdered sugar, once incorporated beat on medium.

3.    Beat in vanilla extract.

4.    Beat in heavy cream using only amount necessary to reach the desired consistency.

5.    Using food coloring, tint frosting to desired colors.

Thanks for coming, stay awhile, and return often! xoxo 

Cinnamon Apple Pie Cupcakes

Our next door neighbors yard has a TON of fruit trees in it. We just had new neighbors move in and in between them moving in and our old neighbors moving out there was some time with no one living in the house... because of that their fruit trees are just overflowing with yummy fresh fruit and luckily for us they keep bringing us bags full! :) This last batch had a ton of apples, more than we could eat before they would go bad so I just had to come up with some way to use them!

I know it's not fall time and apple pie in the end of July just doesn't make sense-- but I just had to try! I've never made these before and I was very happy with how they turned out! I love making homemade  pie during the "normal" times- Thanksgiving and Christmas- so I decided to try and turn pie into a cupcake! I made the filling the same way I would for a pie, I just diced up the apples much smaller! 

I started with a box mix again as my base but didn't want an overwhelming vanilla flavor for the cake so I decided to make it a cinnamon cupcake. I started by adding very little cinnamon since it is so overpowering and worked up to 2 tsp. which I thought was a perfect amount; you could add more or less depending on how strong you want the cinnamon flavor. 

Once I divided the batter amount the cups I then used a tablespoon to spoon in the filling. I didn't attempt to push it down, but think next time I might. Once the cupcakes were baked the apple filling wasn't as in the center as I would have liked but they sure are yummy! 

Once they were out of the oven and cooled they weren't exactly that pretty cupcake look that I like; but of course, frosting could cover any imperfection! When I think of apple pie, I think of it being topped with ice cream and thus- creamy, vanilla buttercream! 

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Cinnamon Apple Pie Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

Box Mix

½ cup melted butter- cooled

1 cup milk

3 eggs

2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tbsp. brown sugar

2 tbsp. white sugar

Filling:

4 tbsp. butter

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tbsp. brown sugar

1 tbsp. white sugar

2- 3 cups chopped apples

Juice of 1 small lemon

Frosting:

1 can buttercream

2 tsp. vanilla

¼ cup heavy cream

4-6 cups powdered sugar

Directions

Filling:

1.     Peel and chop up apples into dime size squares

2.     Add lemon juice to bowl of apples and stir to coat

3.     Add butter, cinnamon, brown sugar and white sugar to a sauce pan and heat on medium-low, stirring occasionally

4.     Once everything is melted together stir in apples, turn to low heat

5.     Heat until apples are just tender, set aside to cool

Cupcakes:

1.     Preheat oven to 350º, line cupcake pan with paper liners

2.     In the bowl of your stand mixer, mix on low the cake mix, cinnamon, brown sugar, and white sugar

3.     Melt butter and set aside to cool

4.     Add milk and butter to dry ingredients and mix on medium

5.     Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition

6.     Mix on medium about 60-90 seconds until well mixed

7.     Divide batter between cupcake pans, filling about ½ full

8.     Scoop about a tbsp. of apple pie filling into each cup

9.     Place cupcake pans in oven and immediately turn oven down to 325º

10.  Bake for 20-23 minutes

Frosting:

1.     Add buttercream, vanilla, and heavy cream to the bowl of your stand mixer

2.     Beat on low until well mixed

3.     Add powdered sugar and mix on low, add more or less powdered sugar based on desired consistency

Thanks for coming, stay awhile, and return often! xoxo