Baking as an art

 Before anything else, I dedicate this post to one of my best girlfriends, Angelique "Lec"! Happy happy birthday my dearest!

I like to think I'm an artistic person. My creations might not be the most beautiful but I say they're okay. I am also a self-professed cook, having proudly perfected my exam in Culinary Arts in high school (haha, as if that even gives proof of my skillzzz). Well, I combined two of my hobbies to create one flavorful masterpiece: multi-colored cupcakes with cream cheese frosting!

Don't worry, this is incredibly easy to do. Plus, I'm a fan of short cuts so no worries ;)

What you need:
Yellow cake mix
Assorted gel food coloring/ gel icing
Butter
Eggs
Oil
Powdered sugar

Told you this is gonna be easy! Haha, short cut number 1: use prepared cake mix! Was supposed to go for Betty Crocker's super moist cake mix but MOA didn't carry it so I ended up with Maya and Pillsbury instead. I used both for this recipe, will show you the difference later on.

p.s. If you don't have cake mix, you can use 2 cups of cake flour, 1 tsp. of baking powder, 1 1/2 cups of cane sugar, 1 tsp. of vanilla, 3 eggs, 1/3 cup of oil, and 1 cup water

FOLLOW THESE:
1. Follow the instructions on the box. Just one tip: mix the wet ingredients first in this order: a) beat the eggs until frothy, b) add the oil, and c) add the water. Mix in the dry ingredients until there are no lumps in your batter.

2. Divide your batter into 4 (depending on the number of colors you want for your cupcakes). Put a drop of gel food color in each.

As I said, a drop is all you need. See how bright the colors turned out?

3. Grease your cupcake tray with butter or line it with cupcake cups (if available). Pour the colored batter in a cupcake tray, adding one tablespoon of each color per layer. Remember to fill it just 3/4s of the way to allow the cake to expand. Pop it in a 325-degree oven, and bake for 15-20minutes. Take it out from the oven and allow to cool.

4. For the icing, I decided to make a cream cheese frosting because I LOVE cream cheese plus I like the contrast of the tartness of the cheese and the sweet butter-y taste of the cupcakes.

This couldn't be easier! In a bowl, mix together one bar of cream cheese and half a bar of butter both in room temperature. Mix thoroughly and add in 1-2 cups of confectioner's sugar depending on your taste. Add  one to two drops of vanilla syrup and voila! You have your cream cheese frosting. Pop this in the fridge for 30minutes to one hour. Make sure that your cupcakes are completely cooled before applying the icing.

5. Enjoy!!!

I used Pillsburry cake mix for this one. Notice how it has bigger air holes

This one's from Maya. I love how beautifully the layers came out

So which brand is better? Both are good but to put a little bit of contrast to the two, Maya holds the colors better making it more ideal for this recipe but Pillsbury tastes better and feels more "cupcake-y".

So there you have it! Really easy pretty cupcakes from yours truly :) I sure hope you try this recipe and I hope you find joy in baking :)

Again, happy happy birthday Lec!!!