Valentines Vanilla Cake

 Hi guys! 

Today Im gonna make cupcakes for my upcoming valentines day party! 

First step is to put on my apron! 

Second step: introduce guest. 

Today juniper is helping me out because she loves baking! 

Third step: get out all of your ingredients (see recipe below)

Valentines Vanilla Cake:

 So today I'm making valentines day cupcakes! Since I don't have a muffin pan the size of my baking cups I'm going to make a sheet cake and then cut pieces so they fit into the cupcake cups. You don't have to make these into cupcakes but since I'm having some friends over for valentines day I figured this would be easiest for serving- and it'll be super cute! 

Ingredients: 

-1 stick unsalted butter (room temperature)

-1 tablespoon of shortening

-1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 

-1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

-1/4 teaspoon salt

-3/4 cup sugar

-2 eggs 

-1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

-6 tablespoons of milk 

-a few drops of red food coloring (optional) 

•Please do not bake without adult supervision and keep dolls away from the oven

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter a pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. 

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl until combined. 

Beat the butter,shortening, and sugar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. 

Reduce the mixer speed; beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. 

Beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture in 3 batches, beginning and ending with the flour and altering with the milk, until smooth. 

Add food coloring, mixing it in until desired color. 

We decided not to completely mix it in and give it a marble-y effect! 

Pour the batter into prepared pan.

Now you can eat what's left in the bowl! Yum! 

Bake for  15-25  Minutes- until you can stick a toothpick in it and it comes out clean. 

If it comes out with cake on it it's not done!

Transfer to racks and let cool for 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edge of the pan and turn the cake out onto the cooling rack to cool completely. Remove parchment. 

Now were gonna cut the cake into small circles to fit in our cupcake cups! You could use a cookie cutter if you have one the right size, but since we don't were just gonna free-hand! 

Icing: 

Now of course you can use store bought icing but I don't have any I like on hand. So I'm going to make some. 

First put some powdered sugar in a bowl and start adding liquid. You can use milk, water, cream, etc. but were just gonna use 2% 

Stir the mixture as you dampen it. This works for any kind of icing but since were using it for cupcakes were gonna want it to be thick- so that means less liquid.

Stir it and add sugar/liquid until it's the consistency you want.

Then add food coloring.

Since it's valentines day and we already have red cake Juniper and I are gonna make the icing pink. 

Then ice your cupcakes- and you're done!