Rainbow Bit Cupcakes with Cake Batter Buttercream

The best part of baking a cake is and always will be licking the spoon.  And bowl.  And any other kitchen appliance that is coated in cake batter!

Now....

Imagine tasting that creamy cake batter at the same time as the sweet, crumbly finished product.  You can have your cake batter and eat it too!  Or something like that...

Anyways, my adorable sister Julie has been in Ethiopia for the past three weeks volunteering with an organization called Canadian Humanitarian!  We picked her up from the airport Sunday night and she definitely deserved a little something special for all of her hard work.  Enter cupcakes.

Julie and I are both huge fans of "unbaked goods."  Cookie dough, cake batter, pie filling, pancake batter (gross, I know), so for her "welcome home" treat I thought I would take our weird obsession into consideration.  The result?  Frosting that tastes like cake. WIN.

Oh, and there are lots of sprinkles.
Because, we love sprinkles.

Rainbow Bit Cupcakes with Cake Batter Buttercream
Makes 12 cupcakes
Cupcakes:
1/2 c. butter
3/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 T. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/3 c. milk
1/4 c. rainbow sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl combine the flour and baking powder and set aside.  In another bowl beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy and well combined.  Add the eggs one at a time, and whisk until they are well mixed in.  Mix in the vanilla.  Add half of the flour mixture and mix until combined.  Then add milk and other half of the flour mixture and stir until the batter is smooth.  Gently stir in the rainbow sprinkles. (Don't stir too vigorously or you will end up with some really ugly purpleish cupcakes).

Line a muffin tray with paper liners, or spray tray with nonstick spray.  Using a 1/4 c. measure, spoon the mixture into each muffin cup.  Bake for 13-15 minutes.  Remove from tray and let cupcakes cool.

Buttercream:
1 stick butter
2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 c. white cake mix
2 T. whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract

In a small bowl beat the butter until fluffy.  Add the powdered sugar and cake mix and beat with mixer on low gradually adding the whipping cream and vanilla until the frosting is smooth and fluffy.  Add a little more cream if the icing is too thick, or a little more sugar if it is too thin.

Once cooled, pipe the frosting as highhh as you want atop the cupcakes as you desire.
Top frosted cupcakes with more sprinkles!

Devour.