Birthday Cakes - 2/4 - The Idea Room

Minnie Mouse Cupcakes

We have an official Minnie Mouse (and Mickey Mouse) obsession at our home. Ever since my now 4 year old met Mickey in real life last year at Disneyland she has been obsessed. So, when her birthday rolled around this year I knew we would be going with a Minnie Mouse theme. Here are the cupcakes we came up with.

I wanted something easy because I had so many other things I wanted to focus my time and energy on. And as a busy mom, time is hard to come by.

Nothing to fancy…just red icing…which came out as more of a pinkish hue…

Some fun white sprinkles from Wilton and some mini Oreos which I had left-over from the Minnie Mouse Oreo Pops.

And then I topped them off with some super easy cupcake toppers which is just scrapbook paper taped onto some toothpicks.

The cupcakes were strawberry flavored and I used the following recipe:

Strawberry Cupcakes
Recipe from Recipe Girl

2¼ cups cake flour
1½ cups granulated sugar
2¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1½ sticks (¾ cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup pureed frozen strawberries (about ¼ of a 1 pound bag)
4 large egg whites
1/3 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 18 cupcake pan with paper liners.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; set aside.

3. In a large bowl with electric mixer, blend butter with strawberry puree. Add flour mixture and blend until light and fluffy (batter will be very thick).

4. In another bowl, whisk together egg whites, milk and dye. Add whites in three parts to the batter mixture, mixing only until incorporated after each addition.

5. Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full. Bake 18 to 22 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

6. Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting.

They were delish! I can’t wait to share a couple more details of the party with you next time. Anyone else out there have a love for Mickey and Minnie Mouse?

I thought it would be fun to share some of our older family photos with you from one of our favorite places!

And….one last thing…I just found out I was nominated for Parents.com for Best Crafts for Kids Blog Award.

I would love it if you could hop on over and vote for The Idea Room.

Simply click on the link Best Crafts for Kids Blog Award!

Thanks so much!

September 21, 2011 · Filed under: Birthday Cakes, Birthdays, Party Ideas, Personal Tagged with

White Cake Recipe

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Some one recently turned SEVEN years old at our house. My kids usually have strong opinions about what type of cake they would like. This particular child did not want chocolate cake since we had just had several family birthdays (including mine) where chocolate cake was served! So we decided to go with a white cake! An ALL white cake. And since this girl is all about girly things…we decided to go with “fluff” as our boys refer to it!

We also just decorated her cake really simply by adding some “cupcake toppers” stuck to toothpicks and stuck them into the cake. The cupcake toppers spelled out her name with a letter on each one and then the number 7 was on one in the front of the cake. I made them by simply using a 2 inch scalloped paper punch for the outside ring. Then I printed out the letters of her name and the seven and cut them out using a 1.5 inch circle paper punch. Simply glue them together so the circle is centered in the scallop.

We used this recipe which we found at Food.com. And really liked it. It was good, moist and had a great flavor to it. That says a lot coming from me…a chocolate cake kind of a gal!

White Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
2 cups white sugar
4 large eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour pans lightly. I used three 8 inch round pans.
Cream together butter & vanilla extract.
Add sugar slowly until all is added and it is mixed well.
Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
In a separate bowl sift flour, baking powder and salt together twice.
Now add flour mixture, alternating between the milk and flour. Mixing well after each again.
Pour equal amounts into each pan and give it a tap on the counter to remove any air pockets.
Start checking at 25 minutes to prevent burning on the bottom and sides.
Keep checking every 5-10 minutes. May need to bake for a total of 30-40 minutes which can vary with different ovens.

We used one of our favorite frosting recipes. I am not a huge fan of frosting…sorry Lara, guess that means more for you! But this frosting? I really like…like I will scrape extra helpings of frosting onto my plate! It is that good. Usually the reason I don’t love frosting is how heavy and thick they are. This frosting is light and fluffy! So it was perfect for the look we were going for. It is the same frosting we used on her Rainbow Cake a couple of years ago.

Fluffy Vanilla Frosting

1. Place 2 sticks of salted butter, at room temperature (otherwise you will get chunks of butter in your frosting), into mixer and whip together until nice and smooth.

2. Then add 1 tsp. of vanilla.

3. Gradually add about ½ to ¾ of a bag (regular size about 4 cups? ) of powdered sugar (Confectioner’s sugar).

It will be a bit chunky and not very smooth.

4. Gradually add 1 tsp. of milk while mixing frosting.

5. If it is still not the consistency you desire, add another tsp. of milk until you get a nice thick frosting that is smooth.

6. Then fold in 1 tub of Cool Whip.

That’s it.

What about you? Do you like cake? And if so…what is your cake of choice?

August 9, 2011 · Filed under: Birthday Cakes, Birthdays, Party Ideas, Recipes, Treats Tagged with birthday cakes, birthday cakes for girls, flour, fluffy frosting, frosting, vanilla frosting, white cake, white vanilla

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

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If strawberry cupcakes aren’t to your liking…how about some Pink Lemonade Cupcakes? Oh. My. Goodness! These are GOOD! You have to like pink lemonade though to like these. They are a bit tart, but really tasty!

Since we have quite a large number in our family, one batch of cupcakes wasn’t going to cut it, so I made two for my daughter’s birthday party. The strawberry cupcakes on yesterday’s post and these pink lemonade ones.

I found the recipe for these at Confections of a Foodie Bride.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes:
3/8 cup water
3/4 cup pink lemonade (frozen concentrate, thawed)
box of white cake mix
3 egg whites
2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Mix all ingredients together in mixer. Mix until just incorporated. Fill cupcake liners 1/2 to 3/4 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Lemon Buttercream Icing:
3 cups + 3 Tbsp confectioners sugar
1 stick unsalted butter (room temperature)
1/8 tsp salt
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Mix until creamy with no lumps of butter. Fill a pastry bag and pipe onto cool cupcakes.

* I altered the original recipe a bit so that mine would be a bit less tart! I didn’t want the tartness to be to overwhelming. I really like how they turned out.