Cupcakes!

Daddy and Big Sis and picked up some Hostess Cupcakes on the way home from a Y-Princess volunteering activity last week as a special Sunday night treat. Hostess Cupcakes… you know, those delicious chocolate mini-cakes with heavenly cream filling topped off with a smooth layer of chocolate icing and those beautiful signature white swirls. I LOVED those things as a kid and would have gobbled up the whole box in one sitting if you let me.

We each got one, unwrapped it and started to dig in. I ate mine in about 4 bites but thought to myself, “Bleah. Not as good as I remember – tastes so… full of chemicals”. Anyone know what I’m takin’ about? Little Sis’ was gone before I could look twice but when I looked over at Big Sis, she had only taken a couple bites of it. This was really ODD behavior for her! I asked her what she thought and she said, “They’re okaaay, but not as good as your homemade ones,” and made a sweet smiling face. Awwwww, how SWEET is THAT!?!?

I guess once you get used to these, there’s no goin’ back to pre-packaged cupcakes. Well, for MOST of us in this family.

Sorry for the bad picture. It’s from the early days but I vow to replace it with a new and improved one asap. But don’t let that stop you from trying out the amazing recipes below!

I’ve tried SOOO many yellow cake recipes over the years and here are my two favorites:

BettyR’s Perfect Homemade Yellow Cake. This first one is as close to a yellow cake box mix that I’ve found. I know that may not sound appealing to some, but I have a weakness for box cake mixes. There’s just something about how moist they are and how they taste they I LOVE. But of course, I don’t like, nor do I really know, what half of the ingredients are, so I’m so happy to have found this one!

Sally’s Baking Addiction’s Vanilla Sheet Cake with Whipped Buttercream Frosting. I ran across this recipe for a baking birthday party that Little Sis had years later and was shocked at how tasty these turned out. Delicious!

As for the frosting, I’m not a huge fan of homemade buttercream frostings. They’re generally way too sweet. All that powdered sugar mixed with butter make me queasy. Once again, I prefer the kind you buy in grocery stores on a cake, lol. I’m sure they use lard or shortening to make theirs taste so good! So I was pretty happy when I ran across these:

Whipperberry’s Simple Vanilla Buttercream Recipe. While very similar to other recipes, it’s first one I ran across that used heavy cream and not as much sugar. It’s my go-to buttercream recipe!

Sally’s Baking Addiction’s Vanilla Sheet Cake with Whipped Buttercream Frosting. The frosting used here is very similar to Whipperberry’s so I just use this one when baking Sally’s sheet cake since it’s on the same sheet of paper.

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Christine, aka happyvballgirl : )

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