sprinkles

Sprinkles was the worlds first cupcake shop, the one that started the many cupcake bakeries & Cupcake Wars craze! For those of you who have not had a Sprinkles cupcake are missing out but if you do not live near one of the 7 (by Feb. 2011, there will be 10) Sprinkles locations you can head to Williams Sonoma for Sprinkles mix in one of these flavors: Red Velvet, Vanilla, Dark Chocolate, Lemon, or Banana.  If you follow the mix directions to a T, the cupcakes will turn out fairly close to the in-bakery cupcakes. The mix even comes with the recipie for frosting! Each mix container makes 12 cupcakes.

I picked up the Red Velvet Mix at Williams Sonoma to make for my friend Kate's birthday when we celebrated at Disneyland since they are her favorite! Come along with me as I make the perfect Sprinkles cupcake...

Start with by placing your cupcake liners in the cupcake pan, I found these cute decorative ones at Micheals Craft Store.

Follow the instructions on the mix container and place equal amounts of batter into each liner and bake as directed.

Let cool on wire racks.

Make the frosting...for the red velvet cupcakes I made a cream cheese frosting using powdered sugar, butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and a pinch of salt.

Carefully frost one cooled cupcake at a time with a hefty serving of frosting.

Apply the sugar candy 'modern dot' decoration and let the frosting set.

And repeat until all the cupcakes are frosted. If you do not plan to enjoy them within the day, store them in the fridge and either bring to room temp before serving or enjoy cold (they are great both ways!)

Lucky me and the rest of San Diego, a Sprinkles location will be coming to La Jolla, CA in Fall 2010! Stop by their website to see if a Sprinkles shop is near you or vote to have a Sprinkes shop brought to your town!