Cupcakes Kids Will Not Waste

For the past four years, I’ve attended my fair share of little kid birthday parties.  I’ve observed and experienced that no matter how delicious the cake tastes or doesn’t taste, it’s the icing that gets all the attention.

Party after party, I watch kids ONLY eat the frosting off their cupcakes.  Leaving behind a half eaten, crumbly lump of sweet bread.

Now, I’m just as much a kid as the next kid.  I recognize there should be a proper ratio of icing to cake in EVERY bite.  And with regular size cupcakes, we always end up with more cake than icing.  This year, I needed a low-mess, one bite wonder that was too small to leave behind. Therefore, for Max’s 8th birthday, I baked mini-cupcakes.

These mini-cupcakes were absolutely perfect!

I started from scratch with a traditional yellow cake recipe.  I considered buying a cake mix.  But honestly, I had all the ingredients on hand.  In the time it would have taken me to load the kids in the car, drive to the grocery store, herd my kids through the store, and head back home - my homemade cake batter would be in the oven already.  Same goes for the creamy homemade icing.

The real sweet treat I wanted to share with you is HOW I prepared the cupcakes for baking. After mixing up a LARGE bowl of batter, I was suddenly struck with the task of dividing it up to make all these tiny cupcakes.  Spoon it in? Too drippy.  Ice cream scoop it?  Again, too drippy.  I wanted clean and efficient.

AH HA - PIPE IT!

I used a 1 qt. zip lock freezer bag as my piping bag.  I cut one corner to fit a piping tip, which had a 1/4 inch opening.  Even though I used a nonstick pan, I still sprayed it with nonstick cooking spray. It makes a difference.

I found my frothing pitcher had the right depth and top to hold my piping bag.

I made sure the top of the bag would not slip into pitcher, then pushed out the air to open up the bag.

I poured about half the batter in the freezer bag. Before I pulled the bag out, I secured the zip lock top, while pushing out the extra air.  I was ready to pipe out the batter.

Turn the piping tip up, to stop batter from pouring out.

Pictures really help tell the story.

Tomorrow, I’ll write out the recipes for the cake batter and creamy icing.  That’s enough for today.  As for the fate of these mini-cupcakes, not one was wasted or left behind.  Only the decorative sprinkles and remnants of wrapping paper were left as evidence of a great birthday bash.