Pink Vanilla Cupcakes

My sister's university friend is visiting and I thought cupcakes would be a nice welcome.  Rather than do something unusual which she might not like, I decided to keep it simple and opted for vanilla cupcakes with vanilla icing, both from The Hummingbird Bakery: cupcakes and muffins, by Tarek Malouf and the Hummingbird Bakers.

  However, on further thoughts, cakes made entirely of vanilla, the cake equivalent of whitewash, seemed a bit dull.  Rather than change the taste, I gradually added a few drops of red food dye to the cake mix.  I don't know about other people. but my mum has 'issues' with rightly coloured food (she claims it is a natural response as these are associated with poison, but I think is an excuse for being fussy).  As such, it may be worth not dying your cakes, say, bright blue, unless you are sure you will be feeding more broad-minded people.  I didn't put too much in, and only added it very gradually, until the mixture was pink.  It is not entirely clear in the pictures, but the inside of the cakes are very light pink.  I would probably have wanted it a stronger pink, but they look pretty in real life and at least my mum was happy.

Although they can be used to good effect, I don't really like using hundreds and thousands because they remind me of when, as a child, I would bury bowls of ice cream and tiny fairy cakes in them.  While at the time I probably appreciated this, I want to move on to more sophisticated decorating methods.  So I covered these in pink sparkles.  In the name of colour co-ordination, of course.

For a sparkly, girly treat, you can't go far wrong with sweet pink vanilla sponge and a glittery sugar topping.