spring cupcakes

For these cupcakes, I used a very simple cupcake recipe and just had fun decorating them.

The lamb is my favourite...

Vanilla Cupcakes
adapted from Nigella Lawson, makes 12 cupcakes

1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
*1/2 cup flour
*3/4 tsp baking powder
*1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put paper liners into 12 muffin cups.

Put all the ingredients except the milk into a food processor. Process until well blended. Add the milk, a tablespoon at a time, until you have a smooth batter.

Divide the batter equally between the paper-lined muffin cups. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.

*You can substitute 1/2 cup self-rising flour for the all purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. It makes the recipe even simpler.


Buttercream Frosting
makes enough for 12 cupcakes

1/4 cup softened unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
2-3 tsp milk

food colouring (optional)

Blend all the ingredients together until smooth and creamy. Tint with food colouring if desired.

Decoration ideas!

A Google search will turn up plenty of fun ideas for decorating cupcakes. I went with these:

Lambs/sheep: Frost the cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. Cut a handful of mini marshmallows in half (or leave whole, for "fluffier" lambs). Press the marshmallows into the frosting to adhere. For the faces, I flattened a large black gumdrop with the palm of my hand and used a toothpick to make nostrils. The candy eyes were purchased. For the ears and tail, I used black licorice Goodies. Little pieces of black string licorice would work too.

Easter eggs in the grass: Frost the cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. Make the "grass" with tinted coconut by putting a cup of coconut and 2-3 drops of green food colouring into a small plastic Ziploc bag. Shake and rub the contents until evenly tinted. Nestle 3 candy coated mini eggs into the frosting, and then sprinkle the coconut over the frosting, pressing lightly to help it stick.

Baby Chick: Frost the cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. Pour yellow sprinkles into a small bowl. Press the frosted cupcake into the sprinkles, turning a little from left to right to make sure the whole cupcake top gets coated. I sort of rolled the edges around in the sprinkles while I was pressing them to make sure they got a solid yellow coating. Then use what you like to make the faces: I used black licorice Goodies, cut in half, to make eyes. For the beak, I cut some triangular shapes from orange gumdrops.

a classic chocolate cake

Birthday cake! In my family, you get to choose your birthday cake and it's always homemade (with some exceptions, like when somebody wants a Mario Brothers cake with a picture of Luigi on top - I leave fancy decorations like that to a bakery). The most popular request by far is for CHOCOLATE.  

This is my go-to chocolate cake recipe


Beatty's Chocolate Cake
from The Barefoot Contessa

1 3/4 cups flour (measure the flour by spooning it into the measuring cup and leveling with a knife)

2 cups sugar

3/4 cups cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk, shaken

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs, at room temperature (I just warm the eggs gently by putting them into a bowl of very warm water while I measure the rest of the ingredients)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans; line bottoms with circles of parchment paper, then butter the bottom and sides of the pans and dust with flour.

Blend the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, mix the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla till well combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients gradually, mixing on low speed. Mix in the coffee and make sure it's well incorporated.

Divide batter between the two pans. Bake for 35-40 minutes or till a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the pans for about 30 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack and let cool completely

**If you're making the cake in advance - and I often do - just wrap them well in plastic wrap and freeze them until you're ready to assemble the cake. No need to defrost. In fact I find it easier to frost when they're still frozen. I even freeze it if it's just baked one day in advance, just to make it easier to frost.

Fudge Frosting

 

*makes about 5 cups

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
4 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 tablespoons half-and-half or whole milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Place all of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse to incorporate, then process until the frosting is smooth.