Thursday, July 2, 2009

End of School Celebrating

Cool, huh? Psychedelic cupcakes are always a hit with kids. Spread them with frosting and pour sprinkles over top and you are the cats pajamas, so to speak. Maybe I should say the dogs pajamas. Some of the cupcakes I did with sprinkles, some I froze and two of them became dogs for my daughter's end of the school year celebration. I never had such celebrations when I was a kid. You got out of school. Running and playing and going wild WAS the celebration. But with all the Mom guilt I have over the fact that other Mom's seem to do so much, I feel this is one thing I can do for my kids to put a little smile on their face. (Mom guilt is an inherent part of child rearing, I think).

Not to mention, any excuse to celebrate is a good excuse to me. Life is too darn short. For me, a few days ago I was 23 and then a day passed and I was 36 and now I just turned around and 43 hit me in the face. How exactly did that happen?

So I won't tell you because you can see for yourself that I NEED a class in cake decorating. This is suppose to be one of the dogs that is on the cover of Hello Cupcake. Yup, say hello to "goodbye cupcake".

The recipe on the other hand is tres magnifique!

Vanilla Cupcakes
recipe adapted from Magnolia Bakery

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line two 12-cup muffin tins with mini cupcake papers and 12- cup cupcake tin with papers.

Combine the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda together. Set aside.

In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. Do not overmix the batter.

Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 10 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

13 comments:

The Blonde Duck said...

I LOVE those cupcakes! Groovy!

Selba said...

Hi Lori,

The cupcakes reminded me to the rainbow cupcakes :)

Btw, thanks for letting me know about the cute cupcakes competition, do you know where I can get more the detail info, i.e: the website? because I've tried to google it but couldn't find it. Thanks!

Unknown said...

Yay for cupcakes! I am such a sucker for cupcakes, and these are so cool. I need to put on some Pink Floyd while I eat them :)

And that does look like a dog, it's definitely better than anything I could do.

sara/imafoodblog.com

Mary Bergfeld said...

I do love your cupcakes, Lori. But I love your ability to laugh at yourself even more. I hope we get to meet some day. Blessings...Mary

Donna-FFW said...

GORGEOUS cupcakes. So pretty.

grace said...

i don't know which i enjoy more, the simple beauty of your psychadelic cakes or the amazing pooch creation. either way, excellent work!

Madam Chow said...

Those look like so much fun! I, too, need a class (or several) in cake decorating.

kat said...

Believe me I think most of us can use a class in cupcake decorating but its really all about trying & how they taste

chocolatecup said...

lol! your dog looks sooo cute:)

Murasaki Shikibu said...

Your cupcakes look adorable and that dog juxtaposed to your comments really brought a smile to my face. :)

Helen T said...

These look amazing, think I'm going to make these for the kids for tomorrow. Not part of a traditional cream tea I'll admit, but what the heck? It'll stop them eating the scones and clotted cream! Great blog, pleased to have found it (I know, slow on the uptake). Happy 4th July!

Ingrid_3Bs said...

Very nice! I thought your doggie looks great!

Btw, I feel the same way when I look at my children especially the twins. Where did the time go?

43? You look fantastic!

Happy 4th!
~ingrid

Lucy..♥ said...

For kids or adults a cupcake is always fun.... a personal cake all decorated, can it get any better than that, no!

Lori it's just a number, I'm still a kid a heart & still thinking my age is in the 30's ok, I'll go 39 ;-)

XXX's