Mini Minnie-themed cupcakes

For my friend's daughter's 3rd Birthday, I made some Minnie Mouse Oreo pops, as well as some mini cupcakes.  Staying with the Minnie Mouse theme, I bought some bright pink with white polka dot mini cupcake liners.  The final vote was for chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing.

In terms of decorations, I wanted to stay with the Minnie Mouse theme.  The pink polka dotted cupcake liners were a start, but I needed some cute decorations.  I had some pink sugar bows (leftover from the Minnie Mouse sugar decorations from the Oreo pops), but there were only 9.  So I bought some big sprinkles in a variety of colors (light blue, dark blue, red, and white), but used the white ones only, and sprayed some of them pink with some leftover edible "spray paint.".  And I had a plethora of bright pink decorations in the apartment - namely nonpareils and sugar crystals.  And while I was already going overboard with the decorations, I figured why not make half of the vanilla icing pink?!

The result is 48 mini cupcakes in a pink-and-white Minnie Mouse theme!  I had enough leftover cake batter to make 3 regular sized cupcakes, one of which I decorated with pink icing and a leftover Minnie Mouse, for the birthday girl.

I used my favorite go-to chocolate cake recipe (the same one I made for my mom's birthday last month) and a new vanilla buttercream recipe (American buttercream, unlike it's French and Swiss counterparts, is way easier to make!).

Rich Chocolate Cake
(a recipe I got from a cooking class I took a long time ago....I may have posted it in the past).

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 large egg PLUS 1 large egg yolk
1/2 cup very strong coffee (I used regular strength and they turned out just fine)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 Tbsp (2 ounces) melted unsalted butter, cooled slightly
1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375F.
Line cupcake tray (or mini cupcake tray) with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder.
Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the egg, egg yolk, coffee, vanilla, melted butter, and buttermilk.

Whisk the liquid ingredients into the try. 
Pour into the cupcake tin.
Bake (Mini cupcakes took about 8 minutes, regular sized ones about 16-17).

Let cool.
Ice with your favorite frosting....or check out this delicious and easy vanilla buttercream:


Classic Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
From a new little blog I came across, SavorySweetLife

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened (but not melted!)

3-4 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar, SIFTED (I used 3 cups)

¼ teaspoon table salt

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream (I used heavy cream, since thats what I had....and only ended up using 2 Tbsp)

Food coloring, optional

Directions:

Beat butter for a few minutes with a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed.
Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and turn mixer to the lowest speed (so the sugar doesn’t blow everywhere) until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter.
Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and 2 tablespoons of cream and beat for 3 minutes.
If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add remaining sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add remaining milk 1 tablespoons at a time.

I took half the icing out of the mixer and put it into my piping bag fitted with a large tip.  Then, I added pink food coloring to the remaining frosting to make it pink.