I love me a mini Mardi Gras celebration. When we lived in Texas, Mardi Gras was a big deal with beads and King Cakes everywhere. Here in New England, Mardi Gras doesn’t get much press, but it is too fun to let go by without making a King Cake. In addition to King Cake, we always have sweet or savory pancakes for dinner in the English Shrove Tuesday tradition.

Besides King Cake, this year I decided to make some Mardi Gras Cupcakes after I saw a cute photo for cupcakes dusted with the Mardi Gras colors of Green, Yellow and Purple. Then I happened to come across a recipe for Mardi Gras Cupcakes over at Baking Bites and decided those were the coolest MG Cupcakes on the planet. And certainly so delicious they deserve to be showered with beads.

Mardi Gras Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
yellow, green and purple food coloring (I love AmeriColor brand)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

3. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract. With the mixer on low speed, gradually incorporate one third of the flour mixture followed by half of the buttermilk. Add another third of the flour mixture, followed by the remaining buttermilk and the last of the flour. Mix just until no streaks of dry ingredients remain.

4. Place just less than 1 cup of batter in each of 2 small bowls. Add yellow food coloring to one, green to another and purple to the batter remaining in the mixing bowl. Stir in food coloring until batters are uniformly dyed. (The purple batter looks really awful, but I assure you that it bakes into a very acceptable shade.)

5. Divide yellow batter evenly into prepared muffin cups, then evenly divide the purple batter on top of that. Do not attempt to spread the purple batter, just drop a dollop on top of the yellow. Evenly divide green batter on top of purple, again not spreading the green batter, just dropping it down.

6. Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Turn cupcakes out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Makes 12

Quick Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 tablespoons milk
3-4 cups confectioners’ sugar

yellow, green and purple colored sugars to dust icing, if desired

Directions:

1. Cream butter with an electric mixer until soft.

2. Add vanilla and milk, then gradually blend in sugar until frosting reaches a fluffy, spreadable consistency. The amount of sugar necessary will vary according to the weather and season, so you might need extra when humid out or a bit less if dry.

3. Pipe frosting onto cupcakes and sprinkle with colored sugars.

4. Eat cupcake with a large Hurricane.

Mr. Waits is in a New Orleans State Of Mind.
Tom Waits-I Wish I Was In New Orleans

And Ms. Welch took my advice and had a Hurricane (or four) with her cupcake.
Florence & The Machine-Hurricane Drunk

Cheers and come back tomorrow for some King Cake!