Vanilla Cupcakes and a Birthday celebration

Hello everyone... Thank you so much for your well wishes. I thought I would be able to get back into the blogging world in a few months but boy was I wrong.. it's been super hectic to say the least and before we even realize that a day has dawned it's drawing to a close. 2 kids are definitely a handful and they constantly keep us on our toes. That didn't stop us from having a small celebration at home in view of my daughter's 4th birthday on October 10th. She also had a small party and a Montessori ritual at her school so I baked some vanilla cupcakes for her friends and decorated it with a light pink icing and she put the sprinkles on top and was positively excited about it. For the 'cake cutting' at home, I baked a carrot cake and again enlisted Anushka's help to decorate it with her favorite candy - m&ms. She was all smiles and said that she loved the 'celebragens and decoragens' :)

SIMPLE VANILLA CUPCAKES - makes around 12 to 15 cupcakes


Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour - 1.5 cups
Butter - 1/2 cup (1 stick), at room temperature
Sugar - 1 cup (slightly more if you want it sweeter)
Eggs - 2
Milk - 3/4 cup
Vanilla extract - 2 tsp
Baking Powder - 1.75 tsp

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 350F and line muffin tin with paper cups. Sift together the flour & baking powder.

2) In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. I used a hand beater and kept at it for a good 6 to 8 minutes.

4) Beat in eggs one at a time, beating really well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract next and beat really well again.

5) Now stir in the sifted flour + baking powder until almost mixed. Add the milk and beat till the batter is smooth.

6) Spoon it into the paper cups - 3/4 full is good because they rise quite well. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes clean.

These are great plain or with an icing of your choice.. since my daughter likes Cream cheese I used that to make this icing and topped with some sprinkles. "

Here's a picture of the other carrot cake also topped with cream cheese icing


and also one of the birthday girl, the baby brother & my mom.