Funfetti Oreo Surprise Cupcakes

Cakes with sprinkles scream "I'm having a party" to me; so, I decided to surprise a coworker with some funfetti cupcakes for her birthday this past week.

I started out making a standard yellow cake and simply adding every colored sprinkle I owned to the batter.  Unfortunately, I forgot to save some of the sprinkles for the frosting; which was vanilla bean buttercream with an entire block of cream cheese added to it.  Next time, I would only add half of the block of cream cheese as it no longer tasted like a buttercream frosting but more of a cream cheese frosting to me.   Because I can't imagine anyone objecting to Oreos, I added them to the bottom of the cupcakes for a surprise twist.  This is just something I have done here and here with get results.

Easter Treats

I can't decide what to make this weekend; so I rounded up a few ideas just in case you're looking for some baking inspiration for Easter as well.

Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake  

Lemon Bars  

Carrot Cupcakes

Lemon Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Lemon Chiffon Cake

Holiday Baking Repertoire

I am so ashamed.  For someone who loves to bake, you'd think I would have accumulate quite a list of go to sweets for the holidays.  I definitely need to step it up this season.  Stay tuned for some great new ideas.  In the meantime, here's a flashback of some oldies but goodies.


This red velvet cheesecake cake won me first place at a company holiday bake off.  What's not to love about it; it's two layers of red velvet cake "filled" with an entire original NY cheesecake and then frosted in vanilla bean cream cheese frosting.
These are definitely the best brownies I ever made.  For the holidays, I like to mix Andes baking chips into the batter or pour half the brownie batter into the pan, lay a handful of York peppermint patties down, and then pour in the remaining batter.

Pecan pie bars were just added last year to my repertoire.  They were quite the crowd pleaser at my family Christmas party as well as the Cake4Kids table at the SCS Annual Auction last week.
I've made these red velvet cupcakes with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting for many different holiday parties over the past few years.  I've alternated between a few different recipes but my favorite one to date is this one.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting Revisted

A friend, who always sees and hears about my baking but has yet to try any, was in town.  So, I decided to make him some cupcakes for once.  Any opportunity to bake is a good opportunity.  He likes cream cheese frosting so I decided with the classic duo of red velvet cupcakes and vanilla bean cream cheese frosting (adapted from BHG New Cook Book).  Found a  new recipe for my red velvet cupcakes (from Cake Central) as I wasn't 100% satisfied with the recipe I was already using.  I thought these came out a bit dry but they were exactly what I imagined a good red velvet cupcake to taste like!

Award Winning Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake

Step 1. Bake an 8-inch Original New York Cheesecake (from Junior's Cheesecake Cookbook)

Step 2. Bake two 8-inch Red Velvet Cakes

Step 3. Make the Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

Step 4. Assemble the layers

Step 5.  Frost the cake

I entered this cake in my company's holiday bake off and I won first place!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

Sources: Red Velvet Cupcakes adapted from Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit and Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting from Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit

Sweet Lemon Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

Sources: Sweet Lemon Cupcakes adapted from Williams-Sonoma and Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting from Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit