Well Fed Network

Posted by Kelby Carr on Kids Cuisine.

There are some things kids just love to make. Once we bought my daughter a cupcake making kit, she harassed me incessently until we pulled it out and made some cupcakes. We did everything the manual way that we could, including mixing with an old-fashioned mixer.It was actually a pretty lengthy process, but in the end we had six tiny and delicious purple miniature cupcakes. Everyone in the family each got a tasty treat, and it was a lot of fun to make.

We got the recipe from a cupcake cookbook that came in the kit, Cupcakes: Make, Bake and Decorate. We went with the simple white cupcake and white icing recipes, but added purple food coloring to make it a little more fun.

This was a little complicated for a 5-year-old, and she did start to get a little antsy towards the end. I think next time I will go with electric beaters and speed up the process (women who baked years ago must have had killer biceps!).

White Cupcake Batter

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 5 egg whites

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put a paper or foil baking cup in each section.
2. Put shortening in a large mixing bowl, and beat for a minute. Add the sugar, and beat until well mixed.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Add about a quarter of the mixture to the shortening mixture and beat on low speed until blended.
4. Repeat that step until all flour is beat into the mixture. Add vanilla.
5. Put egg whites in a medium mixing bowl, and beat on high speed until the whites make stiff peaks. Gently stir whites into batter.
6. Add food coloring, if you so desire.
7. Spoon batter into each cup, filling about 2/3 high.
8. Cook for 12-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
9. Remove and cool on wire racks for about 5 minutes.

White Icing

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 2-4 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation:

1. Using the electric mixer, beat the softened butter until soft and creamy.
2. Add the powdered sugar in small amounts, beating until smooth.
3. Add enough milk until the mixture is the right consistency. Add vanilla.