PEACE OUT, LUCY. THIS ROUND OF CUPCAKES IS ON ME.

I was quite surprised to learn that Lucy, my 7 year old niece, wanted cupcakes with peace signs on them for her faux spend-the-night birthday party on Saturday night. Did I hear a "huh"? Don't worry I had to ask too. Come over in your PJ's, talk some girl stuff, watch some High School Musical, listen to some Taylor Swift, and before you can get too cranky the 'rents come back for you at 9 pm... Smart, Mommy. Very smart.

Anyway, after a quick phone chat, Lucy decided on vanilla on vanilla (eat your heart out Mr. White), with a pink, blue, and green color palate, a "yes" for sprinkles, and, well uh... peace signs. Groovy.









For the cupcakes, I knew I had to go with a tried and true SL friend, Memorial Day Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1611616
Actually, three of us in the Test Kitchen prepared this recipe to celebrate different occasions this week. I'll post pics as they become available.

A FEW TIPS:
Make Ahead: Allow the cupcakes to cool completely once baked, then frost. Or, you can bake them up to 1 month in advance and freeze them right in the muffin pans (Saran, then foil. Once frozen, you can stack the pans to save space). Frost frozen and thaw for a few hours before you serve them. It's up to you.

Equipment: I like the el cheapo Wilton cupcake pans that retail for about $8.99 each at BB&B. They are silver non-stick, very well made pans as opposed to the expensive ones that are dark. Steer clear of dark pans because you'll get over browned i.e. burned baked goods if you don't watch out. (Oh and, shhh... don't let Wilton know we like the shiny ones or they'll jack up the price).

Psychedelic Hue: Lucy requested 3 colors, so I used the NEON food coloring drops you can buy at the grocery store on the cake decorating aisle. For the green frosting, I added a little leaf green food coloring paste to the drops to cut the bright intense shade to balance the pink.

Peace, Man: For the peace signs, I made a simple butter cookie that doesn't have any leavening in the dough so that the shapes will hold and not spread when baked. You could use a vanilla wafer if you'd like.

Cupcake liners: I baked the cupcakes in white liners, then slipped them into the pink Wilton brand liners (Hobby Lobby) just before serving. I feel like they look a little more polished this way.

I hope you enjoy the pics.