Birthday Cupcakes

I wanted to make some birthday cupcakes for a friend last week. I was going to make a boxed mix, but didn't have one on the shelf and was too lazy to drag the kids to the store, to be honest. So, I searched for a fluffy white cupcake recipe and landed upon this one, which I used. Then I made some buttercream frosting. I tinted it pale pink and piped it on each cupcake in a swirl the using a star tip (leftover from when my girlfriends and I took a cake decorating class at Hobby Lobby). Clear shimmery sprinkles were the final touch.

The cupcakes were a little denser than I had hoped, but still moist. The were more muffin like, I guess. I used regular milk rather than soymilk, and coconut oil rather than canola. I replaced the coconut extract with butter flavoring, and in the frosting replaced 1/2 t. vanilla extract with almond extract, mmm.... I love almond extract in frosting. Reminds me of my wedding cake. I also used salted butter and omitted the milk in the frosting. Anyways, the cake recipe, which did not require butter or eggs, reminded me of this chocolate cake recipe, only it was a white batter, obviously. I had hoped to get some cool closeups of the cupcakes, but needed to package them up and it was no longer daylight, so you'll just have to use your imagination :) (I took this pic the next day.)

The verdict:

There weren't many cupcakes to spare, so I only ate half of one (and lovingly shared the other half with my husband of course), so I'd like to try the recipe again sometime to see what I think another time around before I decide if it is a keeper. Interesting note: if you follow the cake recipe exactly, I think it is vegan, if that is important to you. The frosting recipe is definitely a keeper. I was very happy to make a good non-runny, cake decorator quality buttercream frosting without using shortening.