Homemade Funfetti Cupcakes

makes 12 cupcakes

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup assorted brightly colored sprinkles + more for top of frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until combined.

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Add half of the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Add the milk. Once mixed, add remaining dry ingredients. Fold in assorted sprinkles.

Pour into cupcake tins and fill 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Let cool, then frost.


Vanilla Buttercream
2 sticks of butter, softened

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon of milk, if needed

Cream butter in the bowl of an electric mixture until completely smooth and creamy. With the mixer on low speed, add in powdered sugar slowly. Gradually increase mixer speed and add vanilla, then beat for 2-3 minutes, scraping down sides and bottom of the bowl. If frosting is too thick, add milk 1 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. Frost cupcakes and top with sprinkles.

Queen Cup Cakes

This Mother's Day give the moms in your life the royal treatment by serving up these tiny sweets.

Ingredients
Pink-frosted mini cupcakes
Mini yellow Laffy Taffy bars
Water
White frosting
Sparkling sugar
Sugar pearls
Red decorator gel

Instructions
To make the crown, place a wrapped mini yellow Laffy Taffy in a cup of warm water for 2 to 3 minutes to soften it. Unwrap it, then flatten it with a rolling pin until it's 1-1/4 by 3-3/4 inches. Use a knife to straighten the strip's edges.

With the tip of a teaspoon, cut five arches along one edge, as shown. Join the ends to form a crown and seal the seam with a few drops of water. Let it sit for about 10 minutes to harden slightly.

Dip the bottom of the crown into white frosting, then into sparkling sugar, and press it into place on a pink-frosted mini cupcake. Apply a small dab of white frosting with a toothpick to each crown point, then press on a sugar pearl. Add red decorator gel jewels around the middle of the crown for a final flourish.

Wonderland Cake

Ingredients
2 each: 6-, 8-, and 10-inch round cakes (If using mix, you'll need 3 boxes: 1 box makes one 6-inch and one 10-inch cake, or two 8-inch cakes.)
3 cups white frosting
6- and 8-inch cardboard cake circles
6 drinking straws
2 cups pink frosting
1 1/2 cups each yellow and green frosting (we used gel food coloring, available at many grocery and craft stores.)
4 pastry bags, with a small star tip and a small round writing tip

Instructions
If needed, trim the top of one cake of each size with a long serrated knife to make it level. Stack the same-size cakes to make the three layers: spread a thin layer of white frosting on the trimmed side of one cake, then top with the matching cake (flat sides together). For a smooth surface, prepare the cake layers by spreading a thin layer of white frosting around the sides. Put them in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to set.

Use the serrated knife to cut each layer of cakes at an angle, as shown. (You can save the scraps for snacking.)

Place the 10-inch layer on a serving platter and place the 8- and 6-inch layers on the cardboard circles. For stability, press 3 straws each down through the centers of the 8-inch and 10-inch layers (a triangle pattern works best) and trim the straws so they're level with the top. Spread the tops of all three layers with white frosting.

Before assembling the cake, cover the sides of each layer with the colored frosting we show it with only white frosting for clarity). Frost the 10-inch layer with pink, the 8-inch layer with yellow, and the 6-inch layer with green. Spoon the rest of the colored frostings into pastry bags. Stack the 8-inch and 6-inch layers on top of the 10-inch layer so that they are tilted but balanced.

Spoon the remaining white frosting (about 3/4 cup) into a pastry bag fitted with the star tip. Pipe a decorative border around the base of each layer. Use the same tip, rinsing after each color, to pipe pink, yellow, and green borders around the top edges of the layers, as shown. Use a small round writing tip to pipe decorative lines, circles, curlicues, and dots. Serves 36

Ipod Cake

Ingredients
9-by 13-inch cake
2 1/3 cups white frosting
2 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 cup light-blue frosting
8 large blue sprinkles (we used Wilton Jumbo Diamonds Sprinkles)
Chocolate decorators' frosting
Red licorice laces
2 red gumdrops

Instructions
Spoon 1/3 cup of white frosting into a resealable sandwich bag and set it aside. To get the smooth look of our MP3 player, first place the cake upside down on a wire rack over a baking sheet. Frost the sides. Heat the rest of the white frosting in the microwave until it liquefies, about 20 seconds, then stir the frosting and slowly pour it over the top of the cake, covering it completely. Refrigerate the cake for about 30 minutes to harden the frosting.

Carefully transfer the cake to a platter. With a toothpick, mark a rectangle, a large circle, and a smaller circle on the cake as shown. We used a bowl, a glass, and a small loaf pan as guides. Next, snip a corner from the bag of frosting and pipe outlines over the toothpick grooves.

Spoon the sugar evenly inside the outer circle. Heat the blue frosting in the microwave for about 5 seconds, stir it, and slowly pour it into the inner circle and rectangle. Add blue sprinkle details and write a birthday message with chocolate decorators' frosting.

For earphones, first use a toothpick to make a hole in the bottom of each gumdrop. Then poke a licorice lace into each hole -- one lace should be shorter than the other. Pinch the laces together as shown and set them next to the cake. Serves 12

BaseBall Hat Cake

Ingredients
1 baked 8-inch round cake
1 dome cake (baked in a 1 1/2-quart bowl or 6-inch sphere)
3 cups frosting (blue and red)
Red shoestring licorice
1 red gumdrop
Red M&M's

Instructions
Cut the 8-inch cake so that it is shaped like a brim and arrange it next to the bowl cake. Frost the hat blue and the brim red.

Add shoestring licorice to the crown with a gumdrop button. Outline your child's initial in M&M's.

Bowling Lane Cake

Ingredients
2 baked 13-by-9-inch cakes, any flavor
1 3/4 cups plus 1/4 cup of white frosting
Yellow food coloring
1 cup of brown chocolate frosting
2 strips of Fruit by the Foot fruit leather, each about 20 inches long
Gumballs in different colors
1 strip of black shoestring licorice, about 9 inches long 7 chocolate chips
10 bowling pin candles (available at party stores)

Instructions
On a large platter or cake cardboard measuring at least 26 inches long, line up the cakes end to end to form a long rectangle. Trim the cakes as shown.

Trim 2 big cake scraps to 4 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide and stack them on the sides of the wide end of the cake to make the bowling ball rack. Use a little frosting to adhere them if necessary. If the small pieces are crumbly and therefore difficult to frost, apply a light coating of frosting and chill the pieces until it sets. Stick the pieces in place and frost again.

To create a varnished wood look for the lane's flooring, mix the 1 3/4 cups of white frosting with 12 drops of yellow food coloring and 1 cup of chocolate frosting. The overall color should resemble peanut butter. Frost the entire cake, except for the tops of the racks; frost those with the 1/4 cup of white.

Trim 2 strips of fruit leather to fit along the edges for the gutters. Place the gumballs in the rack, add shoestring licorice for the foul line, and arrange the chocolate chip lane arrows about a third of the way up the lane. Set up the bowling pin candles at the narrow end of the cake. Light as many as the birthday child's age. Serves about 20

Cub CupCakes

Ingredients
Cupcakes
White or light chocolate frosting
Mint patties
Junior mints or chocolate chips

Instructions
To make these treats, frost your favorite cupcakes with white or light chocolate icing (for a furry paw, mix the frosting with grated coconut first).

Top each cupcake with a small mint patty. Then place three Junior mints or chocolate chips, points up, around the larger patty for claw marks.

BasketBall Hoop CupCake

Ingredients
Mini white cupcakes (ours is 1 inch tall)
White frosting
Orange decorators' gel
Sugar cookies (ours is 3 inches in diameter)
Mini basketball chocolates (available at candy stores or online at chocolateexpressions.com)

Instructions
For each basket, trim the cupcake flush with the wrapper's edges, if needed. Frost the cupcake and pipe a ring of decorators' gel around the edge.

For the backboard, frost half of a cookie, then add decorators' gel details. Keeping the cookie flat, dab frosting where the basket will go and gently press the cupcake in place.

Use another dab of frosting to secure a chocolate basketball. Let the treats set for at least a half hour before standing them up.

Zoo CupCake

Ingredients
1 large cupcake
Blue icing
1 animal cracker
12 striped birthday-cake candles
M&M's or Smarties

Instructions
Frost the cupcake with the blue icing and position the animal cracker in the cupcake's center.

For the cage, place 8 candles (wick-end down) in a square around the cracker, then -- using a dab of frosting for cement -- carefully lay the other 4 candles across the top as a rail. Place the M&M's or Smarties upright between the candles.

LadyBug CupCakes

Ingredients
1 cupcake
Red frosting
1 chocolate wafer
Black whip licorice
1 black gumdrop

Instructions
Ice the cupcake.

Carefully cut the chocolate wafer into two wings, then use a writing tip to cover them with dots. Support the wings with blobs of frosting on the edges of the cupcake.

Insert the licorice antennae into the gumdrop head.

BaseBall CupCakes

Ingredients
1 cupcake
White frosting
Red whip licorice
Chocolate frosting

Instructions
Frost the cupcake.

Using the stitching of a real baseball as your guide, recreate the pattern with the red licorice (or with red frosting and a writing tip).

With chocolate frosting and a writing tip, sign the ball with the name of your child's favorite player.

Jello CupCakes

Ingredients
1 Jell-O cupcake (see directions below)
Whipped cream
Candies or sprinkles

Instructions
To make a dozen Jell-O cupcakes, add 4 3-ounce packages of Jell-O to 2 2/3 cups of boiling water. Stir until dissolved.

Pour into foil liners in a cupcake pan.

Refrigerate 4 hours or more.

Frost the cupcake with the whipped cream and add the candies or sprinkles for a cool surprise.

Popcorn Cupcake

Ingredients
1 baked cupcake
White icing
40 mini marshmallows (white or pastel yellow and white)
Yellow food coloring (optional)
Clean paintbrush
Scissors
White construction paper
Blue and red markers

Instructions
Frost the cupcake with white icing. To create each piece of "popcorn," cut one mini marshmallow in half and squish the two pieces back together into a whole mini marshmallow, pinching firmly. Pile the finished popcorn onto the frosted cupcake.

For a buttery look, either dilute a drop of yellow food coloring in water and brush it on with a clean paintbrush or mix pastel yellow marshmallows in with the white.

To make the band, cut a strip of construction paper about 1 1/4 inches by 8 inches, or to fit your cupcake, and decorate as shown.

If you're creating many cupcakes, design just one band and color photocopy it. Wrap the band around the cupcake and secure with tape.

Birthday Cakes

Cute Jeans Cake ~ HERE

Cute Purse Cake ~ HERE

Cute Flip Flop Cake ~ HERE

This is a site for 31 different cakes ~ HERE

Colorburst Cupcakes

From Best Bites

You'll want gel food colors for this, not the little bottles of liquid. Gel color adds a ton of color with a small amount of dye. You can find gel colors at craft stores like Michaels and Roberts, and in the cake decorating isle of Walmart.

1 white cake mix
2 eggs
1 C sour cream
1/2 C water
1/3 C vegetable oil

Combine all ingredients until incorporated (about 30 seconds). Scrape sides of bowl and then beat on med-high speed for 3 minutes.

Divide batter according to how many colors you are using. I used 5 colors and it worked out to a little over 1 cup for each color.

Use food coloring to color batter to desired intensity. I used a 1/4 t and they were very bright! You could easily make pastel rainbows using a little less.

To get a layered stripe like I used, you'll want to put a spoonful of each color in the cupcake one at a time. The batter is thick, so it won't spread on it's own. A great tip is to set out a little bowl of water where you're working. Dip your finger in the water and then gently spread the batter out. The water will make it so the batter doesn't stick to your fingers.

Another tip is to use a measuring spoon and some water to measure out how many teaspoons/tablespoons are going to fit in your cupcake. Then divide that by how many colors you have so you know how much of each color to use for each cupcake. For my 5 colors, it worked out perfectly with 2 t of each color in each cupcake. So I put in 2 t of blue in the bottom of each cupcake and spread it out with my finger. Then I put in 2 t of green on top of that, then yellow, etc.

Bake them according to the package directions, until a toothpick comes out dry. Check these babies out! I swear I didn't photoshop these. True crazy colors. I love how you can see the rainbow through the papers. If you want blue on top, just reverse the order (duh, right?)

Good Homemade Frosting recipe is Here.

Butterfly Cake

1. 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
2. 1/3 cup raspberry jam
3. 12 OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
4. 1 (8 ounce) tub COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed
5. Assorted food colorings
6. 1 cup Post Fruity PEBBLES(R) Cereal
7. Decorations, such as assorted ring-shaped hard candies and Mini OREO Bite Size Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

Cooking Directions

1. Prepare and bake cake batter as directed on package for two 9-inch round layers. Cool completely on wire racks.
2. Cut layers crosswise in half. Spread two of the cake halves with jam; top with remaining two cake halves to form two stacks. To assemble, arrange cookies in center of large board or tray with edges slightly overlapping to form the 'butterfly's body,' securing cookies to each other with small amount of the whipped topping. Arrange cake stacks around body to resemble the 'butterfly's wings.'
3. Tint remaining whipped topping with food coloring as desired. Spread onto cake stacks. Decorate butterfly with tinted whipped topping, cereal, candies and mini cookies.