Triple Celebration Funfetti Cupcakes

And we have hit that time again. That bitter sweet time when we farewell the Year 12 students who are about to go out into the world and begin their adult lives. I haven’t written a post like this in so long because each year i’ve been so overwhelmed with life that I just haven’t had time to even consider writing a post. So to even out the score, I have a couple of farewell baking posts to share with you.

I baked these triple celebration cupcakes for my Year 12 Standard English class for our end of Year 12 party. I thought that these were appropriate because, what is a celebration without cake? And, most importantly, SPRINKLES! As these girls were finishing up the most difficult year of their entire schooling and had achieved huge personal goals, I thought that I would help them celebrate by including sprinkles every-damn-where in these cupcakes.

In the batter (vanilla cupcake batter with sprinkles is often called ‘funfetti’ cake
which I actually think is a super super name for it)

Then both IN the frosting (vanilla btw)
AND
ON TOP OF the frosting

I don’t do desserts by halves.

This was also the stage in the night where my photo skills declined severely as it was pretty late and my brain is a huge mushy mess at this stage in the term. But, still, by the end there were a dozen cupcakes ready to be gifted to these precious girls. I feel so lucky to have had such genuinely lovely students this year (and really, most years!) and to have been able to teach students who sincerely wanted to improve their skills in English and learn to become better readers. Thats the secret people, we don’t do it for the holidays (if there were no holidays there would be no teachers, they’re that necessary) we certainly don’t do it to reach a pretty poor wage and never ever have it increased despite how good at our job we are, we don’t do it to be berated by parents who think that because they wen’t to high school they could teach our classes better than the trained professionals currently doing it. We do it because we love the students and we are passionate about equipping them with the skills to be successful in this world. I will be sad to properly say goodbye to these girls when they finally come out of their last English exam, but I am so excited for what the future holds for them!

Triple Celebration Funfetti Cupcakes Recipe (Adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook)

Cupcake Ingredients (yields 12)

1200g plain flour
140g caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
40g unsalted butter
120ml full cream milk
1 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp sprinkles

Method

1. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter with an electric mixer until you have a sandy consistence
2. Gradually pour in half the milk and beat until just incorporated
3. Whisk the egg, vanilla and remaining milk together in a separate bowl then pour into the batter and mix until smooth (don’t over mix!)
4. Stir in the sprinkles
5. Fill your patty pans up to two thirds then bake at 170 degrees celsius for 20-25 mins
6. Cool completely before icing

Celebration Sprinkle Icing Ingredients

250g icing sugar
80g unsalted butter
25 ml full cream milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp sprinkles

Method

1. Beat icing sugar and butter together until smooth
2. Add vanilla and mix well
3. Pour in milk a little at a time and beat until fluffy
4. Stir in the sprinkles
5. ice ice baby! (Don’t eat it all with a spoon)