Kelly Lee: Cotton Candy Cupcakes

First let's start of with the fact that I want this

I think it is going to be added to my wishlist...I am already hinting around the fact that I NEED a red old fashion pop corn maker for my kitchen..hint hint...so maybe once I get that, I can then get a cotton candy maker...it would be heaven, really.

Cotton candy makes me really happy. It's fluffy, cute,and pink! (Although I had forgotten how gross and annoying it gets on your fingers after eating a few bites...I hate being sticky,blah)..Anyway, so I made cotton candy cupcakes! I used my go-to buttercream cake and frosting recipe...it's seriously the best cupcake in the world, in my opinion. I added cotton candy to the icing and then on top of the cupcakes. If you are SUPER serious about cotton candy, it would also be quite delicious to add cotton candy flavoring to it! I had only thought of that AFTER I started making them, and I don't have cotton candy flavoring just laying around...although I probably should?

I became very irritated while making these cupcakes. I bought these cute liners from Michael's Craft store, I was thinking to myself, WOW these would be perfect for my cotton candy cupcakes! WELL, they weren't. Upon opening them, I noticed they were very thin, and I questioned whether or not to put a liner inside these cute pink liners. I read the box and it said just to fill with batter-BIG mistake. After taking the cupcakes out, they looked greasy :( wah wah. Cupcake aesthetics is more important to me than actual taste sometimes, so that really put me in a nasty mood. The SECOND thing to piss me off is that the cupcakes look way darker in my photos than they did in real life. I feel like the cotton candy-ness was not captured, haa. We can blame that on my location, "Dreary Erie". I usually take my photos in daylight because they look best, but since it was dark and snowing when it should have been pretty and sunny, my photos paid the price.

So other than my two complaints, they tasted delicious, and I knew they would. It' not my favorite recipe for nothing.

Buttercream Cupcake
Ingredients:
-1 3/4 cup cake flour
-1 1/4 cup flour
-2 cups sugar
-1 TBL bkg powder
-3/4 tsp salt
-1 cup (2 sticks unsalted butter,room temp)
-4 large eggs(room temp)
-1 cup milk
-1 tsp vanilla (i use a little more)

350 degrees,20 to 25 min.
A mixer with a paddle attachment really does wonders with this recipe, it makes them perfect!
-Combine all dry ingredients
-Add cubed butter to dry ingredients and mix until covered
-Whisk eggs,milk and vanilla separately,add in 3 parts to butter/flour mixture, mix well
-Bake!

Since I use this recipe a lot, I have really figured out how it bakes..I like giant cupcakes, so I fill them 2/3 full...if you do not want them so big, only fill about half way!

Best Buttercream Frosting(with cotton candy added)
Ingredients:
-2 sticks of unsalted butter(room temp)
-6 to 8 cups confectioner's sugar
-1/2 cup milk
-1 tsp vanilla

-start by creaming the butter(mix well)
-once creamed, add sugar, I usually use 7 cups..add gradually
-add vanilla
-then add milk (you can use more or less milk depending on how you want your frosting to be)
-in this case, add a cup or so of broken up cotton candy
-and pipe cupcakes!

*Ok, now I am not implying any of you would do this, BUT I DID..DO NOT add cotton candy to tops until you want to serve, or eat them! I wasn't thinking and put the cotton candy on top right away last night, and was planning on giving them to people today, and the cupcake sucked up all the cotton candy :(( Just a little pointer!*