Lazy Cupcakes

A bit of cupcake life story... Back when I was studying in LA, the Sprinkles Cupcake Bakery in LA was my very first red velvet experience. It was also what sparked my love and obsession for eating/decorating/staring at/reading about/photographing/baking cupcakes. I've been inspired to learn to bake my own cupcakes ever since my first Sprinkles bite.

A while back my college bestie brought back a can of Sprinkles Red Velvet Cupcake mix from LA for me. For those who aren't lucky enough to have access to a Sprinkles Cupcakes store, these cupcake mixes are a close runner up to the perfect cupcake. Also for those who lazy bakers out there, this is an easy alternative to the typical baking-from-scratch - yet fancier than the usual Betty Crocker cake mix. With simple instructions and minimal ingredients (I only needed butter, milk, 2 eggs and a tea spoon of vinegar), these cupcakes came out perfect!

Chocolatey, buttery, and crumbles beautifully.

[The real product isn't this red. This was taken under sunlight hence the hue. Looks a bit scary doesn't it?]

[Much better color representation here. The perfect maroon red.]

The cake mix also comes with a frosting recipe, but I took the lazy route and decided to use up a can of pre-made cream cheese frosting I had leftover from my last baking project instead. I also chose not to use the signature Sprinkles "dots" for garnish (see below photo for the "dots" I'm talking about), because the dots really only look cute with the flat top frosted Sprinkles cupcakes. Instead I sprinkled cake crumbs and some ruby red edible glitter on the frosting for a simple finishing touch.

If you're interested in baking your own batch of Sprinkles cupcakes, their cake mixes are available for sale here and here.

[image source here]