Back to Cupcakes

In the midst of chocolate chip cookie madness, I took a couple cupcake breaks--I baked cupcakes and patronized a suburban bakery to pick up a birthday cupcake for a friend (and of course one for myself). To be honest, it's been exactly three years since I last baked cupcakes. But the welcome back to it was wonderful---all thanks to King Arthur Flour's Recipe of the Year.

Classic birthday cake with a simple chocolate frosting is all you need sometimes. I have had a disastrous track record with baking my own birthday cakes the past few years and I may just have to make this yellow cake tradition now. It was simply just really damn good cake: fluffy, moist, light and not too sweet. And it was the perfect mini cake and cupcakes for a friend's birthday a month ago.

The Recipe: King Arthur Flour's Classic Birthday Cake. The recipe says to bake them as cupcakes for 25-28 minutes but luckily I just kept an eye on mine and they were done in 17 minutes. Also I used less powdered sugar in my frosting, which created an almost whipped texture (and not too sweet frosting).

For another friend's birthday a couple weeks ago, I happened to be running errands in the burbs on the Kansas side of KC and popped into a local bakery I've had on my radar for a while. Dolce Bakery offers standard size as well as mini cupcakes and offered four flavors that day. My standard cupcake was $2.75.

I opted for their seasonal Chocolate Guiness cupcake with chocolate espresso frosting and got a festive chocolate sprinkle cupcake for the birthday girl. I let my cupcake come to room temperature (it was a little chilled upon purchasing it) since it felt a little dense. But the texture at room temperature was moist and the cake was topped with a flavorful light and fluffy frosting. It was a delightful little treat that was packed with great flavor yet it wasn't too sweet.

Dolce Bakery
3930 West 69th Terrace
Prairie Village, Kansas