Game Day Vanilla Cupcakes

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Who’s excited about the Big Game next Sunday?! Our family is already prepping for game time. As I’ve mentioned many times in the past, we are a football loving family. Even my teenage daughter gets into it. It’s a way for us to spend time together while munching on our favorite foods. There’s also some friendly competition. I say 99% of the time there is at least one family member that is going for a different team from the rest of the household. It’s always fun to see who wins and gets bragging rights for the rest of the week. So in preparation for the big game I’m sharing the dessert and sweet treats we’ll be having.

Game Day Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients

Recipe adapted from NatashasKitchen.com
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup of buttermilk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Life Savers® hard candy

White Vanilla Icing

4 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
1 cup of shortening
3 tablespoons of milk
1 teaspoon of clear imitation vanilla extract
food coloring (use your teams colors)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside. Beat eggs with mixer and then mix in sugar, oil and vanilla. Next, add flour mixture and buttermilk to egg mixture and beat until smooth. Pour batter into muffin pan lined with cupcake liners and fill liner halfway. Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes. I would start checking by 20 minutes since ovens can vary. Simply poke in the middle with a toothpick and if it comes out clean, they are done.

In the meantime mix powdered sugar, shortening, milk and clean vanilla extract. Beat well until the icing is smooth and fluffy. In order to achieve this cool deep blue color I used 1 1/2 teaspoons of blue food coloring and a 1/2 teaspoon of purple food coloring. For the bright green icing I used 1 teaspoon of green and 1/8 teaspoon of yellow. Place icing in the refrigerator.

While these babies are baking, get the rest of your goodies together. Some of our favorites are SNICKERS® and Life Savers®. Also get some of your kids involved by asking them to take some of the Life Savers and crush them for your cupcake topping.

I find that piping cold icing makes it much easier to handle. After you get your super cool and yummy icing on the cupcakes, sprinkle with crushed Life Savers. I think it’s safe to say we have chosen which team we are rooting for on Sunday.

Somehow, there’s always a cupcake or two missing before I’m done decorating all of them. Hmmm…I wonder why?

You can find SNICKERS and Life Savers at your local Walmart store in the candy aisle.

While I wait for Sunday’s game, I’ll just continue getting some work done. 😉

What desserts and sweet treats do you plan on making for the Big Game? I would love to hear from you!