Sprinkles!

This was one of my Christmas presents from my parents. Sprinkles cupcake mix (sold at Williams-Sonoma). It comes with a bag of mix, "modern dots," and instructions:

At this point I was like, "Modern dots? Are they edible? How can there be modern dots if there aren't old fashioned dots?" Well, I went to the Sprinkles bakery website... Apparently the modern dots are their thing. They're also very cute. They come in different shapes and letters and colors... I suggest visiting their site and poking around.

Anyway, the recipe called for softened butter, which I usually have trouble with. If I melt the butter, it's liquid and there's no turning back. If I take it straight out of the fridge (because I am incapable of planning ahead and leaving it out until it's softened), then it gets stuck in the beaters. So what's a girl to do?

I think I have to explain what this is. There's really no way to take a good picture of it. I filled a ziploc bag with warm water and sat it on top of the butter. Simple as that. AND...

It works!! It always does. Yes, I've done it before. If I become known for anything in the baking world, it will be my contribution to people who don't know how to manage their time and soften things.
Now it looks like scrambled eggs.

And now it's beautifully creamy! I added the mix:

Very crumbly! So I combine it with eggs and all that good stuff (I threw out the instructions so I don't remember exactly what it entailed, but it was as close to "from scratch" as you could get from a mix!)

Oooooh so pretty!

Forget cupcakes... where's the spoon?

This mix only makes 12 cupcakes. What I love about it is it's so thick. Notice how there's no splashes between the molds! I could scoop up some on the spatula and just slough it off into each mold. Yummmm....

While those were in the oven, I worked on the icing, which really was from scratch (the instructions for the cupcakes also had the recipe for the icing). It called for bittersweet chocolate.

Chocolate for baking!


It doesn't taste so good before it's used in something...

So I did the whole softening the butter thing again... And added vanilla (I think?) to get this:
Can I tell you... This was the BEST frosting I'd ever tasted.

Wow. You want this. Meanwhile, my highly technological tool helped me find out if my cupcakes were done:
Ha. The date was showing up cuz my new camera is touch-screen and my mom must have hit some button when she was taking a picture. So, there's the date!

And the cupcakes! They look like meatballs... (or delicious chocolate goodness)... They're all swirly on top, probably because I swirled them when I put the batter in the molds. Some of them even look like they're laughing...

Time to ice!! Here's the modern dots:


Like a little bullseye!

Conan O'Cupcake?

I'm trying to be like Magnolia's. The little dip around the middle, right?

Oooh!

Ta-da!! :)

Oh, and they were delicious. Go and buy this mix!! Now!!