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birthday cupcakes
Celebrate birthdays (and more) with these easy to make treats—just bake and decorate!
Prepare ingredients
Gather Cooking Equipment
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12-cup muffin tin with 12 paper liners.
In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Add butter, one piece at a time, and beat with electric mixer on low speed until mixture resembles coarse sand, about 1 minute.
Add milk and vanilla, increase speed to medium, and beat until light and fluffy, and no lumps remain, about 2 minutes.
Use ⅓-cup dry measuring cup to divide batter evenly among muffin tin cups (use rubber spatula to scrape batter from measuring cup if needed).
Place muffin tin in oven. Bake cupcakes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
Use oven mitts to remove muffin tin from oven (ask an adult for help). Place muffin tin on cooling rack and let cupcakes cool in muffin tin for 15 minutes.
Remove cupcakes from muffin tin and transfer to cooling rack. Let cupcakes cool completely, about 1 hour. (If you like, make frosting while cupcakes cool.)
Use small icing spatula or spoon to spread frosting over cupcakes. Serve.
Mound 2 tablespoons frosting in center of cupcake.
Use icing spatula to spread frosting to edge of cupcake, leaving slight mound of frosting in center. Keep frosting off paper liners.
