Funfetti Cupcakes with Pink Buttercream

Look! I gotz my nails did.

You read fashion blogs, right? My new fashion blog obsession is Into the Gloss, which interviews top industry insider’s (editors, models, photographers) about their favorite beauty buys. My love for lotions, lip stains, blushes surpasses my adoration for clothes.

Fact: If I’m really bored, I go to Sephora and spend hours upon hours trying stuff on, and leaving with, like, one thing (and ten samples).  I like samples.  I have an issue with commitment.

One day soon, I want us all to be girls and talk about beauty products…I’ll make something like popsicles or something just as an excuse to discuss. Would you dig that?

On Into the Gloss there were a few women that mentioned getting stuff like Chanel “C’s,” daisies, and cross-bones airbrushed onto their nails.

I was kind of intrigued, and even more intrigued when I found out the place (CT Nails–ask for Peter) was within walking distance to my place. Easy is good.  I had no interest in the typical stuff, and thought it’d be cute/weird to get cupcakes!

And that’s what I did…with a cherry on top.

Next on the list to be airbrushed? Bacon, snow cones and maybe a stick of butter. Would that be strange? Yes. Awesome? Yes.

I figured if I had cupcakes on my nails, cupcakes needed to be baked up. I’ve been kinda bored about cupcakes. I dunno. I feel like they’ve all been done.  And sometimes when they have a million things in them, I get sleepy.

But once I saw these pancakes from How Sweet Eats, I kinda freaked out a bit. Sprinkles in pancakes?! Hello! That’s genius…and cute. So I figured they’d be equally cute in cupcake batter. And they were. When you bite into the cupcake it’s like a rainbow explosion.  I then topped them with a basic buttercream, dyed the frosting pink and added pearly sprinkles.

Girly Cupcakes take #2!!!

Sprinkley Cupcakes with Pink Buttercream

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

Yield 24 cupcakes and 4 cups of frosting

Print this recipe!

Cupcakes:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups milk

2 tablespoons of sprinkles

Buttercream:

4 sticks (1 pound) unsalted butter, softened

6 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners; set aside. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside. Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer (or in a bowl and use a hand-mixer). Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 1 1/2 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well. Add vanilla. Reduce speed to medium. Mix in 3 batches of flour mixture, alternating with 2 batches of milk. Raise speed to medium-high; mix until thoroughly blended, 10 to 20 seconds. Add sprinkles and fold in gently.

Spoon 1/4 cup batter into each muffin cup. Bake until a cake tester inserted into centers comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Note: Took me 22 minutes. Let cool in tin on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from tin; let cool completely. Line tin with muffin cups; repeat process with remaining batter.

Put butter in bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 1 minutes. Reduce speed to medium and sift sugar in 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well, about 5 minutes total. Add vanilla and salt. Raise speed to medium-high; beat until smooth, about 1 minute more

You have two options here: You can use a a small off-set spatula (or a butter knife) and just place the frosting on. Or you could transfer the buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a 3-inch plain tip. Pipe buttercream onto each cupcake in a spiral pattern, starting at the edges and ending with a peak in the center. Place pearly sprinkles (or any of your choice) on the top of each cupcake. Girly, cute. Yay!

Tagged as: Butter, Cakes, Cupcakes, Funfetti, Nails, Sprinkles