Baseball Cupcakes

Just a quick little post because I wanted to share my excitement! This past weekend I made my very first paid order of cupcakes! Yeah! Someone actually paid me to bake! A coworker was throwing a party for her son’s confirmation and asked me if I would make some cupcakes for dessert. Well, you know how much I love to bake cupcakes, so of course I said yes!


Her son likes baseball, so I thought little baseballs on top would be really cute! And it gave me a chance to play with fondant again! I’m hooked. I even got to buy brand new toys—Americolor Food Writers! Markers you can write on food with? Heck yeah! I can’t wait to use those some more. I was really happy with how they turned out, and I can’t wait to hear how everyone liked them!

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My Go-to Chocolate Cupcakes
Adapted from Food Network
Makes 24 cupcakes

1 cup sugar
1 cup real mayonnaise
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups cake flour
½ cup cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line 2 standard muffin tins with paper liners. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat mayonnaise and sugar until smooth. Add vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add flour mixture to mayonnaise mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the buttermilk, beating until just combined, scraping down sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.
3. Fill liners with 2 tablespoons of batter (2/3 of the way full) and bake, rotating pans halfway, until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean, about 18 minutes. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack. Once cooled, frost cupcakes.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes

2 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Food coloring (optional)

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter until creamy. Add vanilla extract and pinch of salt and beat until combined. Reduce speed to low and add confectioner’s sugar a little at a time, beating until incorporated. Add food coloring if using. Raise speed to medium high, and beat until fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.