Sweet Summertime

So, I have... fallen down on the job, you might say. I know it may seem like I don't care about blogging or that I'm not excited about it, but that is completely untrue! I am excited, but (especially after spring break) school was kicked into high gear, leaving very little time for extracurricular writing. Anyway, I'm back now and planning on getting this thing rollin'.


It is FINALLY summertime. I thought this day would never come! Although I miss my friends from school terribly, it is so nice to be home with my family! Anyway, enough chit-chat.


Even though I haven't been posting recipes, I have still been baking up a storm! Just last night I made (delicious) homemade Funfetti Cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting! 

Yields 12 cupcakes (but I make large cupcakes, so I only made 11)

Credit goes to: CakeSpy.com

You will need: 

for the cupcakes

1-1/4 cups AP flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
6 tbsp butter, room temperature
1 large egg + 1 egg white, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk (I used half-and-half instead)

2 tbsp rainbow sprinkles

for the frosting
2 sticks butter
7 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions --

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.
3. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a stand mixer, fitted with flat beater, beat the sugar and butter until well combined, about 2-3 minutes. Add egg and egg white, one at a time, beating on low.
4. Then add vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk in 2 additions, ending with the flour mixture. Fold in rainbow sprinkles.
5. Fill cupcake liners about 1/2-2/3 full. Bake for about 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool completely on a wire cooling rack before frosting.

For some of you, you have gotten what you want from this blog: a recipe. However, it didn't really get interesting until the cupcakes were out of the oven, so if you're interested in how I messed up royally, read on.

Earlier this year, my parents gave me a cake decorating set. I decided last night that my Funfettis were the perfect guinea pigs. My first mistake was putting off the cupcake decorating process until one in the a.m. My second mistake was not understanding that there are many different types of food coloring. There is the liquid kind that you can buy from Wal-Mart that you have to squeeze every drop out of to get the most vibrant color, and then there is the fancy brand, Wilton, which is what I was using this time. For this first time ever, in fact. I was planning on doing flowers, so I had pink, yellow and green fancy Wilton food coloring. Being a very intelligent young lady, I didn't read the directions and proceeded to dump half of the tub into each separate bowl of frosting. Needless to say, the results were not so pretty. I now regret not taking pictures, because it would probably give you all a little laugh. However, it was not so comical at one in the morning. 

I was so frustrated that I dumped it all out and whipped up another batch of frosting in about five minutes. This time, I read the directions. They read: "Highly concentrated. Dip one toothpick in and swirl it around until well blended." So I'm thinking, there is no way... that is barely any food coloring. Well, it was the perfect amount. So, about 20 minutes wasted, I began decorating. It was rough at first, but I got a little better. Seeing as it was my first time to really try decorating with icing, I was pretty proud of the end result. 

Anyway, there is my tragic little baking story. Let me know if you try the recipe --- they really are unbelievable!