It seems like there are so many birthdays this month!

Though I’ve been at my current job for almost three years, this is the first year we’ve been formally celebrating employee birthdays. Today is one of my bosses’ special day so we had to make sure there was plenty of sweets for him and the rest of us in the office.

My colleague brought in a small cake beautifully decorated with dark chocolate frosting and berries on top. Because our boss likes less-sweet things, I chose to bake these glorious Vanilla Latte Cupcakes because if nothing else, I know he enjoys his coffee. They turned out to be delicious!

Since I’ve never really made my own frosting before, I searched on Pinterest and found this recipe for buttercream frosting. The author is right– store-bought frosting simply doesn’t compare to homemade! And I only needed to make half a batch to top off one dozen cupcakes.

I used a plastic bag and a little bit of tape to top the cupcakes with the frosting. The tape allowed me to reinforce the corner I cut off the bag to prevent any tearing of the plastic.

The coffee base of the cupcake paired with the sweet, creamy icing making this a lot like a latte. (Aaaand I’ pretty sure this makes it acceptable to have cupcakes for breakfast.) I dusted the top with a tiny bit of cocoa powder for decoration. I almost didn’t want to bring them in so I could eat them all! #bloggerproblems

Vanilla Latte Cupcakes
makes one dozen cupcakes, takes about an hour

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 packet of powdered vanilla pudding mix
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup cold, double-strength coffee
• 1/3 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and vanilla pudding mix. Set aside.
3. In a medium or large bowl, mix the butter and sugar together.
4. Add in the coffee, followed by the applesauce, and lastly the milk to the butter and sugar mixture. It is easiest to use an electric mixer but can easily be done by hand.
5. Begin adding the dry ingredients to the wet mixture until it is fully combined. Because of the baking powder, you want to try to do this as quickly as possible. The more you mix baking powder, the tougher your final product will be.
6. Pour the batter into a lined cupcake tray.
7. Bake for 19-22 minutes.
8. Allow cupcakes to cool completely before icing the top. See this recipe for some tasty frosting!

Enjoy with friends or alone. 😉