happy birthday

My granddaughter is turning one. As exciting as that is, my daughter asked me to make cupcakes for her and the young children at the party. Yes, there will be a beautiful layer cake made by Delicious Orchards, but my
granddaughter may have a peanut allergy and my daughter wanted to be sure there was no cross contamination with the cupcakes. I searched a few cookbooks that I had, my NY Times Cooking app and epicurious.com for a basic yellow cake recipe. I came across one on Epicurious from the baker Rose Levy Beranbaum. The recipe is All-Occasion Downy Yellow Cake from Rose's book The Cake Bible, September 1988. Ms. Beranbaum is a known baker and I trust using a recipe from her.

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The recipe makes two generous layer cakes, but I was able to make 18 cupcakes. The cupcakes took about 25 minutes to bake. I initially placed them in the oven for 20 minutes, but tested them and gave them a little more
time to ensure the center was fully cooked. For the frosting, I went on another hunt. I found a recipe by Gale Gand on the Food Network website. A number of years ago, Gale had a cooking show on the Food Network called
Sweet Dreams. I remember making her vanilla panna cotta which was divine! Her recipe for Quick Vanilla Buttercream Frosting couldn't have been easier.I had the confectioner's sugar, unsalted butter and even the heavy cream (for thinning the frosting) in the house. The frosting was delicious. I made it a little thinner so that I could dip the tops into multi-colored sprinkles. 

The cupcakes were a success at my granddaughter's party. All but one of the cupcakes were eaten. My granddaughter thoroughly enjoyed hers. My daughter will let my granddaughter have the last cupcake on her actual birthday which is Wednesday.