Save the Ta-Ta's!

Hello, everyone! This post is mostly geared towards the ladies, so gentlemen, cover your eyes or proceed with caution.




I am a big Breast Cancer Research supporter, and was so glad to see that Minko at Couture Cupcakes (like to the left, in the blogroll) is hosting a Pinktober event in support of Breast Cancer Research in which she donates $1 towards Breast Cancer Research for every pink-inspired recipe that gets submitted to her by October 15th (yes, I'm cutting it close here).

While no one in my family has gone through such a trying ordeal as breast cancer (knock on wood) there have been a few scares in my family, and I know a couple of people from work who have gone through it. I do this for them.

Pink being my all-time favorite color, it was only natural that I should participate. I was so excited, I didn't know what I wanted to make that was pink, but also oh-so-girly as well. The pinup girls from Northwest Pinups For Troops had scheduled a group photo shoot at my house with a sleepover theme, so I figured what better chance to bake a girly cupcake than for a girly photo shoot, huh? On top of all that, my pinup character's forte is baking, so I would get featured in a solo shot posing with my beautiful pink cupcakes. What more can a girl ask for? I fired up the Pink Terror (my KitchenAid) and got to work!

So, here's my recipe for Vanilla Cupcakes with a Pink Lemonade Icing:

Vanilla Swirl Cupcake Ingredients (adapted recipe from Martha Stewart):
-1½ cups all-purpose flour
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-½ teaspoon salt
-8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
-1 cup sugar
-3 large eggs
-1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
-¾ cup milk
-red food coloring

Instructions: Preheat the oven to 350°. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time; scrape down bowl, and beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture and milk alternatively, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Divide batter evenly between two bowls. In one bowl, add 4-6 drops of red food coloring and mix well. Pour batter into cupcake liners, alternating between the pink and white batter mixture until each cupcake liner is about three-quarters full. (The way I filled mine ended up looking like boobies, I kid you not!) Bake until golden and tops spring back to touch, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer pans to wire rack; cool completely (about 1 1/2 hrs). Makes 12.

Frosting Ingredients:
-1 cup powdered sugar
-2 tbsp warm water
-1 tbsp lemon extract
-red food coloring
-pink sugar sprinkles

In a small bowl, whisk together first three ingredients (add more powdered sugar if it's too runny for your taste). Add two drops of red food coloring and mix well. Frost cupcakes, then decorate with the pink sugar sprinkles. Gorgeous!

These cupcakes went over really well with the pinups, they received rave reviews from everyone who had one. They loved how the two flavors don't overpower each other, they actually are a really nice compliment to each other. They also loved the swirled cake, they thought it was a nice touch. I loved that they came out so beautiful, enough to get photographed with us in our photo shoot! Gotta love those retro tin cupcake papers!

I'll be sure to post some of the finished shots of us with the cupcakes so you can see how photogenic they are. Until then, you'll just have to enjoy the ones I took in my kitchen!

Aren't they lovely? I think so! Hop on over to Couture Cupcakes and check out the other entries and Save The Ta-Ta's!!!

~Mehgan~