the urban baker: Happy Birthday, Isaac!

Today Isaac turns 9. Time is really flying by. I cannot believe he is 9. Where did the last nine years go?

Today is Isaac's day. He gets to be the "king" and call all the shots. Right now, he is at baseball practice. He opted for me to make him lunch today (tuna and chips) rather than go out for lunch. I am open for a quiet, simple lunch. At 4 p.m. today, 8 of his friends are coming over and my house will no longer be quiet and peaceful. They won't be here long, though. We are loading them in the cars and heading out to Chinatown. After all, it is the Chinese New Year! We are going to get dinner and then load the kids back into the car and head over to the ESPN Live Zone. Hopefully, a couple hours of arcade games plus who the heck knows what else will be enough for two handfuls of 9 year old boys.

Isaac wanted to bring dessert to the restaurant. He was very specific on vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting. I love this cupcake recipe from Elinor Klivans CUPCAKE book. Super simple.

recipe:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup canola oil

1 cup sour cream

• preheat oven to 350*. Line 24 cupcake tins w/liners

• sift first four ingredients. set aside

• cream sugar and eggs until yellow in color

• add oil and vanilla

• add sour cream

• add dry ingredients

• scoop into prepared muffin liners and bake for around 20 minutes, rotating pans back to front. let cool.

I used the Dark Chocolate Buttercream from the Bakerella (scroll to the bottom of her post to view recipe )website. I think this is one of those extra perfect frostings.