Vanilla (Cupcake) Cones for Father's Day

So my daughter was in charge of 'organizing' the menu for Father's Day, which fell on 19th June '11. Two weeks prior she had already started planning on a very big breakfast for the big man. Her menu was beef bacon, hotdogs, sunny-side-up eggs, hashbrowns, toasts & apple juice. I added scrambled eggs with beef bacon bits. Just before serving, I told her that I'd take a picture of the breakfast set for her to blog but as usual, our excitement at seeing so much food made me forget to snap. Nevertheless everyone enjoyed the brunch & had our tummy full, that our next meal was dinner.

Besides the big breakfast, my daughter & I had planned to bake Vanilla (Cupcakes) Cone, topped with vanilla buttercream. So I used this opportunity to try out a new & easy vanilla cake recipe for her project. I ended up baking on my own; my daughter came into the kitchen only to choose the colour of the vanilla icing. Yes, she insisted to use pink for vanilla.

What really fascinated her was piping her own icing. She found so much joy in piping the 'perfect' swirl.

Dear daughter's swirl

We, or rather I, had never tried baking a cupcake cone. Again using this opportunity, I tried using some wafer cones to bake the cake batter. It was a fun experience seeing that the batter baked in a wafer cone just like any other cake in paper casings. One downside though - wafers can't retain their crispiness in the open. So I ended up with soft cones after a while. Well crispy or not, the kids still enjoyed them. 

Vanilla Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

1 1/4 cups plain flour

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

1 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla essence

Directions:

1) Cream butter untill smooth. Add sugar gradually & beat until fluffy.

2) Add eggs, one at a time

3) Add sifted dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk+vanilla. Beat until all ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.

4) Fill the cones / cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake at preheated oven of 170C (depending on your oven) for about 20 minutes.

5) Cool completely before frosting.

Vanilla Buttercream

1/2 cup vegetable shortening (I used Crisco)

1/2 cup unsalted butter

2 tsp vanilla essence

4 cups sifted icing sugar

2 tblsp milk

Directions:

1) Cream shortening & butter until smooth.

2) Add vanilla.

3) Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time beating well on medium speed.

4) When all sugar has been mixed, add milk. Beat at medium speed until light & fluffy.

Have fun trying these simple recipes with your kids!