A couple weeks ago I hosted a baking event in partnership with the Dollar Collective.

The Dollar Collective is a charity group I am so proud to be a part of. To quote my friend Dan, the Dollar Collective’s founder, “the goal of the Dollar Collective is to bring greater power and pleasure from your dollar while doing awesome and kind things for strangers.” Awesome idea, don’t you think?

At the start of last year, a group of friends and I each pooled $30 and started doing random acts of kindness for complete strangers with our shared dollar. Think– kiva loans, tree planting, paying for a stranger’s meal etc. If you’re curious about some of the things we’ve been up to, check them out here.

I loved being a part of the Dollar Collective but wanted to do something as a way of being more directly involved. I thought it would be fun to host a baking event in partnership with the Collective! The idea blossomed into what became a “Bake-O-Rama” event.

Members of the Dollar Collective were invited over to bake cupcakes and then distribute them to friends at work, school or strangers on the street.  Since icing cupcakes can always be a challenge, we turned it into a cupcake workshop and then sweet treat delivery day. The steps were: 1. bake cupcake. 2. decorate cupcake. 3. deliver cupcake. It was fun! Here’s the poster I designed:

We decided to bake vanilla cupcakes with mint, blue and funfetti buttercream frosting.

The mini cupcakes were our favourites! They are just so perfectly bite-sized, don’t you think? Dangerous :)

Here’s the recipe we chose:

Vanilla Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

yield: 30 cupcakes total prep and bake time: 2 hours temp: 325 degrees Supplies: Mini cupcake pan or regular pan.

Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

1 3/4 cups cake flour (not self-raising)
1 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line cupcake pan with foils or grease cupcake pans well.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour.

2. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat.

3. Divide batter evenly among tins, filling about 2/3 full. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.

4. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat process with remaining batter. Once cupcakes have cooled, use a small offset spatula to frost tops of each cupcake. Serve at room temperature.

Recipe credit: Martha Stewart

Buttercream Frosting

(customized with mint flavour, blue coloured and funfetti!)

1 cup butter
3 tsp vanilla
4 cups sifted icing sugar
4-5 tbsp heavy cream
Optional:
-colouring of choice
-peppermint extract
-funfetti

1. Whip the butter with a beater until it is white and fluffy. Wait until it’s white!

2. Gradually add the icing sugar, cream and vanilla alternately.

3. Divide the icing into separate bowls and gently dye batches in your colour palette/flavour of choice! (we added a titch of peppermint extract to the green batch)

4. Spoon icing into your icing bag, fitted with your icing tip and begin icing. Here’s a great youtube video on icing cupcakes:

The cupcakes weren’t entirely “rosebud” esque, given the icing technique we chose (experts would shake their heads), but we loved the daintiness and petite size of these little treats that the name kindof stuck. They look like little rose faces! Lovely.

Well friends, I am in Waterloo, Ontario for the next month or so, so my blogging will be on pause for the next little while. So sad to say! I am going to miss my kitchen aid (!!), creating tasty treats and sharing my stories with you.

In the meantime I hope you have a wonderful July. Isn’t it crazy to think that the glorious month of July is at our footsteps? Hopefully with the next stage of summer, you’ll have plenty of time for your friends, activities and of course your favourite things. You all know my favourite hobbies are the crafty and baking kind.. I’m curious, what are yours?

PS: Exciting news! I’ve been nominated for a Liebster Blog award. Thank you Pamela Walker for the nomination. Check out her thoughtful comments here.

Love,

Blue Owl