Vanilla cupcakes...again

I appreciate simple and for me this is embodied by vanilla cupcakes with vanilla butter cream frosting. However, I also appreciate the need to give simple a bit of a twist, which brings me to my Sunday afternoon baking. Baking makes me happy and gives me a real sense of accomplishment when I cast my eyes on the finished product, even if these eyes are a bit critical. I tried a different vanilla cupcake recipe this time around, one that can be found here on a blog that I read on a weekly basis. As you can see I once again put some dulce de leche sauce into the cupcake as done here with some chocolate cupcakes. For the vanilla butter cream frosting I used:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3 & 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 1 & 1/2 tbsp meringue powder
• 1 tsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• blue colouring to tint

My method for making frosting doesn't really deviate much these days. I start by quickly whipping the butter on a low speed before adding the icing sugar gradually until combined. Next I added the vanilla essence followed by the meringue powder (I probably didn't need quite as much as I used) and then the milk to thin it out a bit. Lastly, I added in a few drops of Wilton cornflower blue icing colour to tint the frosting lightly. I used my trusty Wilton 1M decorating tip to give the cupcakes a polished finish. Cupcakes aren't the same without some sort of fun sprinkles adorning them so I cracked open a new batch of confetti ones. The confetti sprinkles may possibly be my favourite kind as they come in lots of different varieties i.e. Spring, Halloween, Christmas, and I should know because I have all three. I love sprinkles!