Alices Unbirthday Cake & Cheshire Cat Cupcakes

For the cupcakes I was looking all over the internet for ideas on what to make for them, and as I looked around I found the most incredible cupcakes!  Here is just one example from Cupcake Junkie.

As you can see, my competition was fierce! So I decided to take a much easier route, by making up a story about the Cheshire cat and just dying the cupcakes different colors.  I had the Queen of Hearts, who is my adorable pregnant sister, and a professional actress. (I'm lucky to have such a talented family at hand!) The Queen explained that the Cheshire Cat had made cupcakes for the event, and that she asked for plain vanilla cupcakes, but hat he had been up to his usual mischief and made all the lovely Un-Birthday cakes change colors.

So we sang a Un-Birthday song, blew out the candles, and each kid bit into their cupcakes to find out what color or colors they were.  The Cheshire cat was even rather cruel in not giving all the kids the colors they wanted!

For the recipe I bought the cookbook More from Magnolia, from the Magnolia Bakery in New York City.  I decided to try their Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcake.  It was amazing the first day, but the second day, the day of the party it was dry and crumbly.  I find that tend to happen with any recipes made with milk.  So if your eating in the day of I highly suggest this recipe, but if not, then use something with buttermilk.  It stays moist longer! Here is a link to purchase the book!

Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcakes

Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line two 12 cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.
In a small bowl combing the flours. Set aside.
In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth.  Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla.  With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.  Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended.  Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcakes liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
Cool the cupcakes for about 15 minutes.  Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.  At the bakery we ice the cupcakes with either Vanilla Buttercream or Chocolate Buttercream.
Makes about 2 dozen cupcakes.

Alices UnBirthday Cake

For the cake, I used my favorite go to Super Epic Rainbow Cake by Whisk Kids, the  recipe can be found here.  I used this for my 29th Birthday Rainbow party, and loved the cake!  You can view the party here!  This time, I didn't follow the Rainbow pattern and decided to just use vibrant colors.  I think it turned out really fun.

We were going to cut the cake for the kids, but I noticed they ate about two bites of the cupcakes and then were done.

So I decided not to cut it, and use it the next day for my little brothers 22nd Birthday.  It had to be the most feminine cake I had ever made him, but since he came home from his Birthday week spent in Banff Alberta Canada with pink hair, I felt it was appropriate way to celebrate it!