Tri-Colored Trifecta
A recipe collaboration by Zglinski, Sanchez and Jones
White Cupcakes
Recipe makes 12 cupcakes.
- 1 and ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 and ¼ tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. salt
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 and ½ tsp. vanilla extract
- ½ cup oil (vegetable or canola)
- ½ cup buttermilk (or ½ cup milk and ½ tbsp. lemon juice. Let sit 5 minutes)
- 12 cupcake liners
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare muffin pan with liners.
- Mix dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- With an electric mixer and a separate bowl, beat eggs and sugar on medium speed until well blended. Add in vanilla, oil, and buttermilk.
- Mix in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat until combined.
- Use a measuring cup or an ice cream scoop to fill cupcake liners about 2/3 of the way full.
- Bake 12-15 minutes and cool in pan before moving cupcakes over to cooling rack. Cool completely before icing.
Swirled Buttercream:
Did you know you can make delicious buttercream from home? Say goodbye to those cans of frosting at the grocery store because this recipe only requires five simple ingredients.
Recipe makes enough for 12 cupcakes.
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened (2 sticks)
- 1 lb. powdered sugar, sifted
- 3 tbsp. heavy cream or milk
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- ½ tsp. salt
- Food coloring, gel preferred
- Large gallon sized freezer bag
Instructions:
- Beat the butter on a stand mixer or with a hand mixer until it is broken up and completely smooth, 1-2 minutes.
- Slowly add in the powdered sugar in ¼ cup additions while continuously mixing.
- Once all the sugar has been incorporated, add the heavy cream and beat the buttercream on a medium-high speed for three minutes, until light and fluffy.
- Finally, add vanilla and salt and give one last mix.
- Here comes the fun part! Divide your buttercream into three bowls and add just a bit of whatever food coloring you’ve chosen to each bowl. For example, if you’re having a July 4th celebration, dye one bowl red, one bowl blue, and keep the final bowl white.
- Next, just take a freezer bag, and put one corner down into a glass and open the bag over the mouth of the glass. This is just to ensure it is easy to put the buttercream in the bag. Take each color of buttercream and add into the bag making sure to keep it to one side. Then, you can cut off about an inch from the bottom corner of the bag that is in the glass and start piping your tricolor swirled buttercream on your cupcakes!
Homemade sprinkles:
Royal icing is not only perfect to create beautifully decorated sugar cookies, but you can also use it to make delicious homemade sprinkles. This is a delicious, easy and fun activity for all ages. Bonus, you know exactly what is in your sprinkles so no need to worry about any unwanted added ingredients. All you need is a few simple ingredients that you probably already have at home.
Ingredients:
- 1 egg white
- ½ lb. confectioner’s sugar
- ¼ tsp. vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp. almond extract
- ½ tsp. lemon juice
- 1 tbsp. water
Instructions:
- With a hand mixer beat the egg white until it comes to a soft peak. Add the lemon juice and gradually mix in the powdered sugar while mixing on a lower speed.
- Add your choice of flavoring and mix it in as well. This should only take a couple minutes. Do not overmix. Overmixing can cause the icing the become crumbly and powder like when it dries.Your icing should be smooth, shiny and toothpaste-like consistency.
- To color your icing, add a drop of food color and mix well. Now bag your icing. You can use professional piping bags or just resealable sandwich bags. To make bagging easier, place your bag in a cup and fold the opening around the rim. Make sure to close the bags well.
- When you are ready to pipe cut a small hole in the corner of the bag.
- Prepare a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper. Insider tip: “glue your parchment paper down” with a drop of icing in each corner to prevent movement.
- Now let your creativity shine! For simple traditional sprinkles, pipe different size lines, but you can make tiny dots, hearts or really anything you can think of.
- Let the icing dry at least 2-3 hours or overnight. The larger the piped pattern the longer it takes to dry. Once the icing is dry you can break up the lines for small sprinkles and remove dots from the parchment paper.
- Store in an airtight container or resealable bags.
