Let Them Eat Cupcakes

What’s a birthday party without cake?

Or, in this case, cupcakes.  I know they are a little trendy right now, but I’m very fond of cupcakes.  Like Jon says, they are fun because everyone gets their own cake.

For this particular birthday party, cupcakes seemed like a better choice than cake.  For one thing, it was at someone else’s house, and I didn’t want to haul plates and forks.  Nor did I want to show up with my contribution to the party and require that they provide plates or forks.  So, cupcakes seemed like the perfect no-imposition dessert.  Secondly, it was a large party (about 20 people), and it would take a really large cake to feed that many.  Although, lesson learned on this one.  I underestimated how much dessert everyone would eat.  I only took 2 dozen cupcakes, even though the recipe made more than that.  Everyone had a cupcake and several people immediately wanted seconds.  Next time I’ll take the whole batch.

Since we’re smack dab in the middle of summer, I wanted the cupcakes to be summery.  With raspberries in season, I decided a vanilla cupcake with raspberry frosting would be a perfect birthday party dessert.  I’ve been wanting to try something that I had seen on Wicked Good Kitchen a while ago.  Her recipe was actually for a strawberry frosting, but I figured raspberries could easily be substituted.  In her recipe, she had used freeze-dried berries for the frosting.  Intrigued, I promptly ordered some from Amazon.  You pulverize the berries into a powder (I used a clean coffee grinder), and then use the powder in the frosting.  The benefit, or so I read, is that you get all the flavor of the berries without introducing a lot of unwanted juice or liquid, which can drastically change the consistency and texture of the frosting.  I acknowledge that by using freeze-dried berries I wasn’t actually taking advantage of the seasonal berries.  But, it’s what gave me my inspiration.  And, I used a fresh berry on top of each cupcake.

For the cake, I used a recipe that had been touted the “best white cake recipe {ever}”, and after making it I think I have to agree.  She said it would quickly become my favorite recipe, and she’s right.  With the exception of adding more vanilla than the original recipe called for, I didn’t change anything about it and the cupcakes turned out perfectly.

Perfect consistency, beautiful color and wonderful flavor.  The vanilla cupcake paired with the raspberry frosting is the perfect taste combination.

Happy Entertaining!

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