Pink Princess Cupcakes Cookbook
By Barbara Beery
Published March 1, 2010 (Hardcover with concealed spiral binding) Gibbs Smith
More Info: Barbara Beery
I baked tonight. I know. A shock. I wish I could tell you I baked a cute little cupcake out of my beautiful bubblegum-pink Pink Princess Cupcakes Cookbook . But I found the book after I finished baking my cheesecake pie. About a dozen members of Dinner Grrls are coming over tomorrow – my turn to host the monthly pot-luck.
That cheesecake recipe card pre-dates my high school graduation. It was one of my mother’s favorite recipes, and the handwriting on the card is hers. She taught me how to bake a few things and how to cook a few things, usually close to midnight, mostly with a bottle of Gallo wine that had begun full sometime just after school let out, and was close to empty by the time the dinger went off. Other times, it was a liter of Scotch rocks, her favorite drink. No, I don’t remember much how-to. Most instruction – if, indeed there was any – is wiped out by overriding synapses of fear, laid in as my child and then teen body reacted to glass breaking, thunderous yelling by my stepfather, not moving away from his petting me so as to keep from angering him more, and various other family entertainment. So, still, I meticulously read each recipe, hoping to get it right.
The cupcake book cheers me up, that prepubescent version of myself that still lives inside somewhere. Did you know you can use an ice cream scoop to fill the cupcake cups? Five cupcake recipes – vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, banana, and red velvet – open the book. Then you choose from seven frostings – cream cheese, whipped cream with variations chocolate whipped cream and raspberry or strawberry whipped cream, and the buttercream family, comprised also of chocolate buttercream and meringue buttercream. Buttercream was my favorite. I made all the birthday cakes for my family. Easy. Betty Crocker, add water and eggs. All you had to do was read, and reading I could do. Always Buttercream frosting – I just dumped a box of confectioners sugar into a bowl and beat it up with a stick or two of butter. Something like that. Then, lick the spoon…when no one is looking. That was the whole point, that lovely sweetness.
Back to Barbara Beery and her cupcakes. The best part – OMG – the beautiful decorating! That, I totally sucked at. But here, any kid can get it right. The recipes enchant – Pink Princess, Sunshine Princess, Glass Slipper – nearly thirty. The Crown Princess, pictured on the cover, looks like the perfect choice:
Ingredients:
Favorite Vanilla Cupcakes
1/4 cup pink sprinkles
Cream Cheese Frosting
Pink paste food coloring
Dragees
Additional pink and white sprinkles for decorating
Decorative crown liners
Directions:
- Make cupcakes according to directions, folding 1/4 cup pink sprinkles into the batter after it is completely mixed
- Make frosting according to directions, adding pink paste food coloring
- Frost cooled cupcakes and decorate. Serve in crown princess cupcake liners
Now here’s the cupcake recipe:
Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups unsalted butter, room temp
1 1/2 cups superfine granulated sugar
6 large eggs, room temp
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups self-rising flour
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350. Lightly spray inside of each cupcake liner. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar with hand mixer till light and fluffy
- Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in vanilla. Add flour, one cup at a time, mixing after each addition until just blended.
- Fill each liner one-half to two-thirds full of batter. Bake 15-20 minutes.
- Remove cupcake pan from oven, cool on rack for five minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan, place back on rack to cool for 30-minutes before frosting and decorating.
And now the yummy Cream Cheese Frosting:
Ingredients:
1 8-oz pkg cream cheese, room temp
6 tbls unsalted butter, room temp
3 cups powdered sugar
2 to 4 tbls heavy whipping cream
pinch salt
2 tsps vanilla extract
Directions:
- In large bowl, combine cream cheese and butter and beat with hand mixer till light and fluffy.
- Add powdered sugar and cream, beating until desired spreading consistency is reached
- Add salt and vanilla and beat till smooth and creamy
- And LICK THE SPOON!!!
