A friend of mine is expecting her first baby this January and the ladies were celebrating the baby-to-be this past weekend with a little shower. It was perhaps the best baby shower I have ever been to for the following reasons: no ridiculous shower games, a bottle of Pelee Island Winery’s Riesling Dry as the door prize, (hey, just because the momma can’t drink, doesn’t mean that we all have to suffer,) and of course, food.
Carli whipped up a delicious breakfast of homemade French toast, fruit, yogurt and bacon. Erin brought amazing cinnamon buns her mom made fresh Sunday morning and I, upon request brought cupcakes.
To whip up a batch of un-gender specific goodies I used a variety of food colouring combinations to cover all of the possible baby outcomes. The recipe for super yummy vanilla cupcakes can be found below. For the icing, just melt ¼ cup of butter, 2 tablespoons of milk and add icing sugar until the icing is REALLY thick. It should stick to the spoon as you stir it if you want to pipe it on. Add icing sugar and milk as needed. Otherwise you will have a glaze, not icing. Trust me. These are easy. You, hypothetically, cannot mess them up.
Ingredients (Makes 18 cupcakes):
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1 cup milk
- 3 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 eggs
Directions
- Set oven to 350*F
- In a large bowl beat in all of the ingredients
- Stir very well
- Pour batter in lined cupcake holders, filling no more than half way full
- Bake 20-22 minutes
- Remove immediately from pan
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jillian Authier a lifelong Windsorite, Jillian’s passion for teaching has brought her into the kitchen at one of Windsor’s community centres teaching children simple recipes even they can do. Jill also loves her white wine. Pelee Island Late Harvest Vidal anyone?
