So this weekend was a mini cake and cupcake weekend.  Here is the second round for our cute little neighbor, Emmy, who is turning 7 and thinks Justin Bieber is all that!  🙂  I ended up doing these on my own which was actually really fun!  The mini cake is a 6″ chocolate (from the WASC cake recipe) covered in our buttercream icing tinted purple and then Duff’s purple fondant from Michaels.  The cupcakes are all vanilla cupcakes (new recipe to follow at end of post) also covered with our purple buttercream icing.  I cut out the hearts and stars with cookie cutters and also the “JB’s” a few days ago so that they would dry and stand up straight in the frosting.  (Just a tip – 1 day isn’t enough for the fondant shapes to dry all the way so 2 days or longer is best.)  The idea for the microphone cupcakes came from Alan Richardson and Karen Tack’s cookbook, “What’s New, Cupcake?” and were very easy to do.  They used mini or child size cake ice cream cones which I couldn’t find so I bought the regular size and carefully (with a serrated knife) cut them down to the proper size.  The antennae at the base of the cone is a purple Mike and Ike’s.  The ball of the microphone is a doughnut hole dipped in frosting and then rolled in silver dragees which I found at Zurchers party supply store.  Happy Birthday Emmy!

Vanilla Cupcakes (recipe from http://www.cupcakerecipes.com)

2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 egg whites

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup milk

2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1  Preheat oven to 350 (or 325 for dark pans).  Line cupcake pans with paper liners (for these I bought the silver liners).

2  Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, shortening, milk and vanilla and mix on low for 2 minutes.  Scrape bowl.  Add egg whites and mix on high until fluffy and smooth, about 2 minutes.

3  Fill liners 1/2 – 2/3 full.  Do not overfill.  Bake 20 – 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

4  Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan.