Happy, Happy Birthday to Stella!

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Birthday Dinner

Stella’s turned 8 over the weekend and it was a continuous birthday celebration.  Dinner Friday night at her favorite restaurant, Saturday was her actual birthday party and Monday is the celebration at school.

Her party Saturday was at the local bowling alley – the kids had a great time bowling, laughing, playing and just having fun.   They all had great scores, the side bumpers didn’t hurt.  After bowling for about an hour, it was off for the food and cake.  It is so interesting to listen to the different conversations that the kids had.    The cake was a Carvel cake, which  brought back memories for me of birthday parties from long ago, with an ice cream cake with the cookie crumbs in between the layers of ice cream – it was so special to have a Carvel cake for your birthday!  For a birthday gift – the bowling had all the kids sign a bowling pin, what a great idea!

Stella decided that she wanted chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting for her school birthday party.  Many of the kids have allergies, but I am not sure what they are – I do know that one of Stella’s friends, who has been in her class a couple of years – is allergic to so many things, that they usually have to call her mom and let her know what the ingredients are or send it home.  One of her allergies is to eggs, but I could not remember if she was also allergic to dairy.  I took an eggless cupcake recipe and made some changes to it.

Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour (I used whole wheat)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup oil (I used coconut oil)
1 3/4 cup milk or water (I used milk)
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbl Vinegar
1/3 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake pan.  Depending on how much you fill the cups this will yield 12 – 16 cupcakes or 2 round cake pans.

2. Mix all the ingredients together, except the chocolate chips.  Make sure it is well blended.

3. Add the chocolate chips and mix.

4.  Fill the cupcake cups.

5. Bake for 25 – 35 minutes. They are done when a toothpick comes out clean.

Vanilla Butter Frosting (http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2010/10/28/vanilla-cupcakes-vanilla-buttercream-frosting/)

Ingredients

1 cup butter, room temperature
2 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 Tbl vanilla

1. Cut up the butter and place in a bowl.  You can use a mixer or a stand mixer with a wire whisk attachment.  I used a mixer.  On medium-high, cream the butter for 5 minutes, scraping the bowl a couple of times.

2. Gradually add the confectioner’s sugar on low to medium.  Once it is all mixed in with the butter, increase the speed to high and whip it all together.

3. Add the vanilla and blend well.

4. Time to frost the cupcakes and decorate.  This recipe states that it is enough to frost 12 cupcakes, but we frosted 33 and had leftover.  You can store the leftover frosting in the refrigerator in a sealed bowl.  When you want to use again, bring it to room temperature and give it a quick whip with the mixer.

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