Mardi Gras

King Cake Cupcakes

Made: February 12, 2013

Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 2/3 cups flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons soft butter
- 2/3 cup milk, at room temperature
- 1/4 teaspoon Fiori di Sicilia; OR 1 teaspoon vanilla + 1/8 teaspoon lemon oil
- 2 large eggs

Icing
- 3 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (half of an 8-ounce package) cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon lemon oil
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1 to 2 tablespoons milk, enough to make a spreadable icing
- colored sugars, preferably purple, yellow, and green

Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 FL
- Lightly grease and flour a muffin tin, or line the muffin tins with papers, and spray the insides of the papers

Cupcakes
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt
- Add the butter and beat with an electric mixer at low speed, until the mixture looks sandy
- Combine the milk and vanilla and add, all at once
- Mix at low speed for 30 seconds, then increase the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds
- Scrape the bottom and sides of the mixing bowl
- With the mixer running at low speed, add 1 egg
- Increase the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds
- Add the second egg, again beating for 30 seconds
- Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, and beat briefly, just till smooth
- Scoop the batter by heaping 1/4-cupfuls into the prepared muffin tin (A muffin scoop works well here)
- Bake the cupcakes for 23 to 25 minutes, until they've domed, and are a light golden brown around the edges
- They'll spring back when pressed gently on top, and a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean
- Remove the cupcakes from the oven, and place on a rack to cool completely before icing

Icing
- Combine the butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and lemon oil in a medium-sized bowl, and beat them together until light and fluffy
- Add the sugar gradually, beating well
- Beat in the milk a little at a time, until the frosting is a spreadable consistency
- Spread each cake with icing, and immediately dip in gold, purple, and green sparkling sugars, covering about 1/3 of the cupcake with each color sugar

I followed this one really close to the recipe; only a couple of changes. I couldn't find lemon oil anywhere. So I used lemon juice in the batter with the vanilla and extract in the icing. Also, I didn't use a full 2 cups of powdered sugar. It was getting a nice consistency, so I used 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar with 1 tablespoon of milk. I also didn't have or could find yellow sugars, so I just used green and purple I had. I never had King Cake before, but these cupcakes were quite delicious!

(Recipe used: King Aurthur Flour)