Sprinkled Cupcakes

Sprinkles the MAZIN' Hamster has arrived and there’s no better way to celebrate than with a batch of delicious (and adorable!) sprinkled cupcakes! Here’s what you need to make a tray of your own:

What you need:
½ cup of softened unsalted butter, vanilla extract, three cups of icing sugar, bowl, hot water, hand mixer, adult assistant, rainbow sprinkles

What you do:
1. With the assistance of your adult assistant, make a batch of your favorite vanilla cupcakes. Let them cool.
2. Having your adult assistant help, get ready to make some icing!
3. Put the butter into the bowl. Mix it with the mixer until it’s creamy. Add one teaspoon of vanilla extract. Mix well.
4. Start adding the icing sugar gradually. Mix it in thoroughly after each addition. If you find the icing is getting too stiff, add a little bit of hot water and mix thoroughly.
5. When your icing is lovely and creamy, put it into a plastic baggie and snip a pencil-sized hole at one corner of the baggie. This is your icing bag.
6. Frost the cupcakes.
7. Top the icing with rainbow sprinkles.
8. Share your cupcakes with a friend (maybe even Sprinkles the MAZIN’ Hamster?!)!

Types of sprinkles:
There are lots of different types of sprinkles. Here’s a little breakdown of the kinds you might find at your local bake shop:
Sprinkles: These are your regular, everyday sprinkles. Usually they just taste sweet, although sometimes they have flavoring.
Shaped Sprinkles: These are sometimes called ‘quins’ or ‘sequins’. They don’t taste like much (other than sugar), but they’re definitely fun and cute!
Sugar sprinkles: These are crunchy and tasty and they come in a rainbow of color!
Chocolate sprinkles: Yum! These brown sprinkles taste a little bit like chocolate!
Nonpareils: These are little round balls of sugar – they come in every color you can imagine!
Dragees (pronounced ‘dra-jays’): You’ve probably seen these little decorative balls on lots of fancy foods. Dragees come in many different shapes and sizes. Even though the silver and gold balls don’t look edible, they are!