"Nothing says love like a cupcake does."

We couldn't agree more. Let's bake cupcakes for people we love. Only a couple sorority chapter meetings left so how about for our Theta sisters? Jessie and I looked up different cake recipes and settled on one from the great Duff Goldman (from Ace of Cakes). We put our own spin on this classic vanilla cake by adding rainbow sprinkles and vanilla buttercream frosting, mmm. Bonus, this is another recipe that sticks to our chocolate strike (though we both may have cheated a little...) There is so much frosting left over we're gonna have to whip up another cake this week, oh darn.

Cupcake Ingredients
3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, unsalted
2 cups sugar
4 tsp vanilla extract
6 eggs
3 tbsp canola oil
2/3 cup buttermilk
5 heaping tbsp rainbow sprinkles

Directions
-Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare cupcake pans with liners.
-In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
-In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes until light. Add vanilla then eggs, one at a time. (Don’t worry if the batter looks curdled.) Add oil and buttermilk. Slowly add flour mixture in 3 additions and mix until just combined. Stir in rainbow sprinkles.
-Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full. Bake about 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the
middle comes out clean (ours were perfect at 17 minutes). Let cool completely before frosting.

*Yield: About 36 cupcakes. We think it could have made 40+ but I dropped some batter on the floor :(




Vanilla Buttercream Frosting Ingredients
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
7-10 cups confectioner's sugar
2/3 cup 2% milk
3 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Place butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 5 cups of the sugar, then the milk and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes. Gradually add in remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition until the frosting is thick of enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar, frosting should be fluffy and smooth. If desired, divide the frosting evenly and place in separate bowls then add food coloring of your choice. This made us enough pretty peach and lavender frosting for all 36 cupcakes and then some. Store the frosting in an airtight container and refrigerate to frost another cake.