Adolescent Milestones: Part 1

Reporting live from my boyfriends cozy apartment in Queens, New York! Snowstorm Juno just made her appearance causing all of NYC to work from home today. Music to our ears, I tell ya! Not only am I thrilled to shack up with my boyfriend, eat snacks and watch seasons of New Girl on Netflix, I get to use this day as an excuse to write my second blog post! It is a good day today, thank you mother nature. 

Lets dive right in, shall we? So this past weekend called upon a few very significant Birthday milestones. A few weeks back my friend Stephanie asked me to collaborate for an upcoming event. Stephanie and I went to college together at LIM - a Fashion Merchandising school in NYC catered to the business savvy student. Like myself, Stephanie is currently expanding her day-to-day by working on her passion project, aka an Event Planning business. We will later discuss what a passion project is, my best friend Janine has made sure to share this idea with me and I just love using this term whenever I can. 

Nevertheless, the event was for a themed Sweet 16 Birthday - what 16 year old girl wants a party without a theme?! No one, thats who! The theme was a royal blue and pink explosion of diamonds and crystals and bows, OH MY! At first, I was skeptical - I have never been the girl to like bright colors together, especially pink or even diamonds for that matter. I know, who am I and what did I do with my femininity? But, to my surprise, I had a BLAST making all these colorful treats and even fell in love with the way the light pink complemented the rich royal blues. It made me want a Sweet 16 all over again. I made sugar cookies in the shape of diamonds and the number "16" and very sweet cotton candy cupcakes topped with edible cotton candy flavored sugar diamonds. These goodies were add-ons to an abundant candy station that looked like the perfect backdrop for a super sweet, Sweet 16! I do not have step by step photos of the goodies I made but I assure you they are super easy to throw together. Check out the Cotton Candy cupcake recipe below :)

Cotton Candy Cupcake Recipe
This recipe is such a fun way to amp up your favorite "go-to" vanilla cupcake recipe

what you'll need:

Vanilla cake:

• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
  
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 cup granulated sugar
  
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
  
• 1 cup milk
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• pink food coloring - to your desire
• 1/2 cup dry cotton candy (already made)

Cotton Candy Frosting:

• 1 1/2 to 3 teaspoons heavy cream
  
• 1/4 cup cotton candy
  
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick) softened
  
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar

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DIRECTIONS:

   Cupcakes: (makes about 24 cupcakes)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line your cupcake pans with cupcake liners of your choice. 
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.
3. Beat together butter and granulated sugar in a stand mixer on medium speed until combined.
4. Add eggs and beat well, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary.  Reduce speed to low and gradually add flour mixture, beating until combined.
5. Add milk and vanilla and beat until well combined, do not over mix.
6. Add pink or blue food coloring to your desire.
7. Pour batter into cupcake molds - about 1/3 cup full.
8. Bake for about 30-35 minutes. Let cool in pan on wire racks for about 10 minutes.

    *** Please keep in mind that you can even use box cake mix - so easy!! **

    Frosting: (double recipe, if you want a nice mountain of frosting like I did!)

1. In a small bowl, pour 1 1/2 teaspoons of the heavy cream over the cotton candy to melt it; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until thoroughly combined. Stir in the vanilla and melted cotton candy. Beat on medium high until light and fluffy, about 45 seconds.
3. Add pink food coloring to your desire.
4. Garnish with sugar diamonds and pink sugar sprinkles for fun! I found my edible sugar diamonds on etsy: APocketFullofSweets 
5. I also bought these pretty bright blue cupcake wraps on etsy:PaperNPeace