My brother’s birthday is right around the corner and I’ve got a fantastic cupcake idea in mind for him. My plan involves fondant though, and I’ve never used fondant before. So I felt the need to do a test run with some fondant icing before embarking on my big brother’s birthday project. I’ve been so elated that the weather is getting warmer that making springtime cupcakes for my test run was a no brainer.

I used the Wilton recipe for marshmallow fondant. According to the reading I’ve done on fondant, this recipe is one of the best- it’s far cheaper than store-bought fondant and tastes better too. I used my stand mixer to do all the kneading and it came out great! I think it also helped me avoid much of the stickiness involved with making fondant. It’s possible that I’ll be on a fondant kick for a while now.

Cupcake recipe is below along with zillions of pictures of the cupcakes! Follow the link above for the fondant recipe. I was lazy about the buttercream frosting and used a boxed mix from Trader Joe’s.

Happy Spring!!! And stay tuned for the big reveal of my brother’s birthday cupcakes!

Lemony Cake

ingredients:

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

1 ¼ cup sugar
½ cup butter or margarine: softened
1 cup milk (I used almond milk)
2 teaspoons lemon flavor
2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 350˚. In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl combine the butter and sugar and mix until light and fluffy. Add the milk and lemon flavor and mix well. Add the eggs. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix. Use cupcake liners or a greased cupcake pan. Divide batter among cups and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cake comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes in the pan, then remove cupcakes from pans and cool completely.