Bones Cupcakes

When Alex graduated from Physical Therapy school, I promised him cupcakes decorated in a fun "PT-ey" way. Unfortunately, my decoration skills are seriously lacking and all I could come up with was little bones. Although really, who wants a drawing of muscles on their cupcake? "Here, have a bicep! Or would you prefer the quadricep?" This did work out for the best, since Alex's nickname is Bones, and I have now become Mrs. Bones.

The newly appointed doctor wanted vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting, so who was I to argue?

I followed the much-loved Amy Sedaris Vanilla Cupcake recipe, and then I proceeded to eat way too much of the batter. Oops. But I did realize why this is a beloved recipe - it's delicious! The cupcakes are light and fluffy, which was great because many past cupcake attempts have turned into muffins. When making this recipe, be sure to fully mix the batter after each addition of milk because it tends to clump on the bottom of the bowl. I got 18 cupcakes from this recipe, and found that they rose best by filling the tins nearly to the top (instead of the usual 2/3). My favorite cupcake-batter-scooper is my ice cream scoop. Thanks for the suggestion, Mr. Alton Brown! Don't you just love him? Sigh...

I also had great intentions of making my own chocolate frosting, but suddenly time got away from me and it was the night before the party. I had to make do with canned frosting (I know, I know...I'm sorry!) and a pre-filled tube of white icing. But, this did inspire me to sign up for a round of cake decorating classes at Joann's Fabrics. I am ridiculously excited to learn how properly frost a cake and make roses!

Alex (and everyone else) loved the cupcakes, even if they did look a little like dog bones. I'm pretty proud of my amateur decoration attempt, and can't wait to try more.