Cupcakes? Frosting? Sprinkles!? It's birthday time! If you've been here a while, you know that this time of year is marked by a very special set of birthdays. My twin baby cousins are officially 3 years old today! They're a cute set of rambunctious little toddlers who are finally out of their terrible two's, and entering their terrible three's. They're celebrating with an adorable, home-crafted Elmo birthday celebration, and even though I'm never able to be with them at their actual birthday party, I always make them an honorary batch of cupcakes to celebrate. Two years ago I made ganache-frosted, pudding-filled chocolate cupcakes; one year ago I made tons of mini vanilla cupcakes, frosted in an array of colors, and shaped in a big "2." This year, I wanted to keep things super classic. Nothing says kid's birthday quite like a vanilla cupcake and chocolate frosting, right? The twins are fans of Nutella though (as evidenced by Valentina enjoying waffles with Nutella one morning during my last trip to Colombia), and since I'm also a fan of Nutella, a Nutella topped cupcake with colorful sprinkles seemed like a fun and easy twist on a birthday favorite.
I really feel that vanilla cakes are one of the hardest things to bake. I mean, they're pretty basic in theory (because isn't a vanilla cake the basis for all flavored layer cakes anyway?), and they seem like a natural first step in cake baking, but I find this to be completely untrue. Nailing a vanilla cake is hard. I have yet to find or develop what I consider to be a perfect vanilla cake, with a recipe that develops consistent results each and every time. I've already figured out my favorite chocolate cake recipes, and most of them I only had to make once to realize that they were special in every way possible (rich, with a real chocolate taste, moist, and with a wonderful crumb). Even chocolate cakes that end up not making my list of favorites are usually really delicious anyway. Vanilla cakes are definitely not like foolproof chocolate cakes. They're more fickle; if I get the texture just right the flavor isn't quite what I'm looking for, or vice versa. Or the recipe, if it was really good, doesn't perform the same way the second time around. It's a series of trial and error, but at least it's a fun experiment!
