Qu'ils Mangent du le Gateau! (Let Them Eat Cake!)

My roommate Marilyn, who is French-Canadian, and is "Marie" to friends and family in Montreal, requested that the same rich vanilla cupcakes that attended Kasey's birthday party make an appearance at her own bash.

Even though this meant I had to follow the recipe, since it was the queen-for-a-day making the entreaty, I obliged. I did just what the recipe said I should do to produce twenty-four moist, vanilla-dense, buttery little cakes.

However, I still got artistic with the buttercream, using it to decorate their golden tops with random patterns of M-monograms of all sizes. This "Marilyn" cupcake was expressly created for presentation to the royal birthday girl.



Here, Cinderella is doing the cleaning waltz in her ballet slippers before her feet are graced with the magic of Miu Miu and her guests arrive.



Below is the only shot of the party, which an unknown photographer managed with my camera battery's last breath. That's the back of my head front-and-center, the rest of me is blurry because I'm dancing (no surprise there).

But even if you look very hard, you'll not spot a single ration of any divine floury confection, or even a smidge of pastel frosting; by this point, every last bite of gateau had been devoured by our guests, leaving only the crumbs on the wrappers.

Our Marie said, "let them eat cake," and they did!



Vanilla Cupcakes

As found on the Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit website

22-24 regular cupcakes / 375-350 degree oven


1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

1. Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds.
2. Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds between each.
4. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add to mixer bowl. Add the milk and vanilla. Mix to combine.
5. Scoop into cupcake papers about half to two-thirds full (depending on whether you want flat or domed cupcakes).
6. Bake for 22-25 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.

Note: These cupcakes tend to rise quite a bit and will overflow if you put too much batter in the cupcake paper. Keep it under two-thirds full. They also tend to pull away from the papers as they cool. It should be minimal if the cupcakes were baked enough and shouldn’t be an issue.