I’ve been going on and on about Liz leaving this week. She finally left. Boo-hoo! She packed up all of her things in a U-Haul Friday and came over, exhausted, to bake some treats to take with her for the long road trip to Asheville, NC. Now you might be thinking, if she is exhausted why would we be spending hours baking on a Friday night? It relaxes us. We bonded together in London over a love of sugar. Liz and I would spend our days looking for great cupcakes and hanging out for hours at the Chocolate Bar at Harrods.

We are quite the match. So this was very sad. It called for a fun recipe. My little sister actually gave me the idea of making Funfetti cupcakes. She likes to bake cakes for her college friend’s birthdays. Their number one request is the Funfetti cake, Pillsbury’s infamous sprinkle creation. Now, my elementary school days were filled with Funfetti cupcakes, but it has been years since I’ve had one. When Alli said that she makes these most often, it made me want to try them again, but as a homemade version. I checked the Internet, and came across quite a few homemade Funfetti recipes. I adapted this recipe from Cake Spy, who adapted it from Cupcakes by Shelly Kaldunski.

Fairly straightforward cake recipe. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt together in a separate bowl. Add butter and sugar to another bowl and beat until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs and egg whites one at a time, beating on low. Add extracts, beat another minute. I used vanilla paste. I was going to take a break from photographing this recipe, but couldn’t help myself. Check out those vanilla bean flecks. Gorgeous!

And I had a cute pug at my feet. Smitty loved hanging out with us in the kitchen.

Now for the fun part. Sprinkles!

Four tablespoons of confetti-like sprinkles.

Just stir them in. I used two mini-scoops of batter for my cupcakes.

It made 24 cupcakes.

They baked up quite nicely. Loved the colorful “Funfetti” like flecks.

Of course, Liz and I had to split one right away.

I had to have Liz make the frosting. I had to make so much frosting every week for two months for my cake decorating course. I can make cake again, but not frosting. Not quite yet. She made a yummy vanilla buttercream, and we topped them with more sprinkles.

This recipe was easy and worked just fine, but the cupcakes were a tad bit too dry and could have used even more almond extract for more of that Funfetti flavor that Pillsbury captures so well. If I were to make them again, I would try Cook’s Illustrated White Cake recipe and simply add 4 T sprinkles to the batter.