Vanilla Cupcakes

I love going to specialty cake shops and looking around at all the fun stuff they have available for you. On one of my trips I picked up an extensive food coloring kit and wanted to use it so I made these vanilla cupcakes. I also picked up the sugar flowers and sprinkles that I used to decorate them with. They were fairly inexpensive at $.40 each. I live in Portland and the shop I went to was the Decorette Shop on SE Foster CLICK HERE if you want to check out their site.

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 Cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 Cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 Cup milk, preferably whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Line 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners
3. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition
5. Beat in vanilla extract
6. In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt
7. Add to butter and egg mixture along with the milk and beat until combined
8. Fill muffin cups with batter and bake for 12-15 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted comes out with a few crumbs attached (or clean but I prefer a moister cupcake)
9. Remove from oven and place on rack to cool
10. Frost with store bought frosting or make your own! FROSTING RECIPE just add food coloring until you get desired color. I would add 2-3 drops at a time and then stir and see if you would like it to be darker.
11. Decorate with flowers and/sprinkles.