Mmm...Cupackes

Image from BettyCrocker.com

Digging around in the pantry last night, I stumbled across a box mix of Confetti Angel Food cake mix.  SCORE! Promptly deciding that I wanted to make it into cupcakes, I started the oven, dumped the mix into the bowl, added the water and got to mixing.  Well....then I took a moment to glance at the box and found that it expired...well a long time ago. (READ: 01SEPT07...does that mean what I THINK it means?!)  I took a small taste of the batter, which wasn't mixing up well for some reason, and it was SOUR.  Now, if I had baked it, maybe it would have been okay.  MAYBE.  But after tasting it, I couldn't bring myself to finish the process so down the garbage disposal it went.

Then I had a conundrum: I'd already started the oven and greased the pan.  What was I now supposed to do with this?!  Instead of doing the perhaps logical thing and cleaning up and turning off the oven, I took to the Google-machine and found myself a recipe for angel food cupcakes from scratch.  Easy.

I found a good-looking recipe at How Sweet It Is and decided to go for it.  I halved the recipe (because (a) I was making the BIG cupcakes, (b) Dan and I alone did NOT need a whole recipe, and (c) well, I only had 6 eggs) and got to work. I did not have cake flour and another quick visit to the Google-machine informed me that I could "make" my own with a little cornstarch. :)  To make them "confetti" cupcakes, I dumped in some sprinkles.  Overall, they turned out pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.

I had my share of problems along the way, the biggest thing being that I couldn't seem to beat my egg whites into submission.  They never did form the "stiff droopy peaks" that they were supposed to but I used them anyway.  The result was a slightly denser cake than angel food normally is, but it still tastes good!

Dan and I ate two of the cupcakes plain last night and they were delicious! The outside had that slightly sweeter "crust" that I love about angel food cake.  We could have easily eaten all 6 of our big cupcakes but decided instead to make some frosting the next day (today) and add that. (Because really, is it a cupcake without frosting?)

This morning I went looking for a frosting recipe because the buttercream that I generally make is a heavier one that's good for piping.  I wanted something a bit lighter, so with my mad librarian skills, I once again took to the Google-machine and searched "fluffy buttercream frosting." (Yes, very professional, I know.) I went for the first result, which was Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream from Martha Stewart. It was super simple.  I actually only made 1/4 of the recipe, so my recipe looked like this:

• 1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1/8 tsp vanilla
• Pinch of salt

Then, because I was feeling whimsical, I topped the cupcakes off with the rest of my sprinkles and some of the mini chewy sweet tarts that we bought at the fair last night. 

Ta-da! Delicious and fun to look at! :)