My birthday was yesterday- I turned a whole 31 years old. The bigger milestone is I have exactly one month until my due date! I’ve been seeing homemade funfetti cupcakes on a few blogs lately and they keep catching my eye. How can a cupcake that is splattered with sprinkles not be festive. These are just screaming Happy Birthday, and I knew I had to make them for myself. I felt kind of funny making my own birthday treat, but I got over it fast
The first place I found the funfetti cupcakes was on 52 Kitchen Adventures. I loved how vibrant the sprinkles looked inside the cakes! She got her cake recipe from Cakespy, so that was my next stop. I used the cupcake recipe as a guide, but I did make some adaptations. One was the addition of almond extract- a definite enhancement! It added great depth of flavor without being overpowering.
For the icing, it took me a while to figure out what to use. Buttercream is a great choice in which you can never go wrong, but I had some marshmallow cream that I’d been wanting to use, so I did some researching. Finally, I found a recipe in my Cupcakes! From the Cake Mix Doctor book, but I didn’t have sour cream, so I made major changes to the recipe and ended up dipping the cupcakes in the icing. It took some trial and error to get the icing to a workable consistency, but I think I got it figured out. The flavors of the cake and icing blended amazingly and I couldn’t ask for a better birthday indulgence. Oh, and some Breyer’s vanilla ice cream didn’t hurt either
Homemade Funfetti Cupcakes Makes 12 cupcakes
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 egg, plus one egg white
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup milk (I used fat-free)
2 to 3 tablespoons rainbow sprinkle
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners.
In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. With a mixer, beat the sugar and butter until well combined, about 2-3 minutes. Add egg and egg white, one at a time, beating on low. Add vanilla and almond extracts. Gradually add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk in 2 additions, ending with the flour mixture. Fold in rainbow sprinkles.
Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full. Bake for about 18-20 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.
Marshmallow Icing
1 jar marshmallow cream
3 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
about 1/4 cup powdered sugar
Remove the lid from glass jar of the marshmallow cream and heat it in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Scrape the cream out of the jar into a mixing bowl. Add the cream cheese and vanilla. With a mixer, beat the mixture on medium speed, adding powdered sugar to thicken it enough to your desired consistency. Beat until fluffy. Dip the top of each cupcake into the icing, then decorate with sprinkles. Let the icing set for about 10 minutes before serving.