Last weekend, with 2 lovely ladies, I co-hosted a baby shower for a mutual friend’s daughter-in-law.  This is an exciting time for the new mom-to-be, who has also been a fabulous friend and helper to me in a time of need.

The hostesses decided on cupcakes and I offered to make them.  These are my busiest, Christmas tree decorating days at work so it’s a sad fact that I do everything on the fly.  I would love to have taken time to do more but, alas, it was just my allotted contribution of cupcakes.

I saw a

[new to me] cake mix flavor from Duncan Hines ~ French Vanilla.  I’ve mentioned before, I tend deviate from recipes, and now I confess that I also tend to experiment and change box mix instructions 🙂  My heart’s desire was to make cupcakes that are like the white almond cakes we get from a nearby bakery.  They are expensive, rich and almondy-divine.  Actually….they are to die for.  Since the box instructions for the cake mix used oil for the shortening, I decided that, to attain the rich flavor of “above mentioned” bakery cakes, I needed RB [real butter, that is!]

So, in lieu of the oil, I used a softened stick of unsalted butter.

I also added a tablespoon of pure almond extract.

While the cupcakes were baking, I made a butter cream icing using:

1 stick butter

1 stick margarine

¼ cup sour cream

2lb bag of 10x powder sugar

a generous tablespoon of pure almond extract.

I added a bit of milk to get the consistency needed for spreading and piping.  The joy began when I tinted small bowls of the white icing with blue, pink and green [all in the palest of hues] and then started icing away.

At Blackhawk we sell the most clever of all ceramic dishes from a company called Nora Fleming.  Their dishes can be simply altered from one event, holiday, theme, game, etc. – in just the replacement of a mini ornament, aka a mini.  The mini has a little silicone stem that fits snugly into a hole in the side of the serving dish.  For this shower, I used the baby blocks mini and created serving plates that were baby shower specific.  How incredibly cute is that idea?

 

 

The shower was loads of fun and the new mommy was honored with many gifts to celebrate the arrival in November [or before!]  The cupcakes were a hit and came close to the texture and flavor of the heavenly bakery ones. Yay ~ I’ll make these again!

 

 

 

 

 

NOTE: Please come into the store and see the complete line of Nora Fleming dishes and minis.  For the upcoming Holidays, you’ll want the Fall, Football, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas ones!