what's in the middle? the white stuff

It was the early '90's and my friend was playing a  a parody song of NKOTB's 'You Got It (The Right Stuff)' by Weird Al Yankovich, but the song was about Oreo's. Now, I'm not a Weird Al fan normally, but I'm tickled by wacky humor and I love Oreo's even more, so this song just gets in my head every time I see those little cookies.

Who doesn't love Oreo's? Those crispy little black and white cookies just beg to be dunked in milk, broken up into ice cream or smashed into a delicious pie crust. But you can't beat a homemade version. Ever.

This recipe is courtesy of the Flour cookbook (I know, I feel like I'm on a bender with this book) and can be made two ways. Bake them for the full 20-25 minutes and you'll have a traditional, crunchy Oreo...or you can be a bit rebellious and under-bake them so that they have a softness to them. There's no wrong way to make them, the point is that you should make them. 

sprinkles!!!

Aren't rainbow sprinkles just happy and festive? My niece turned 6 a couple of weeks ago and, like any human, is obsessed with rainbow sprinkles. Obviously she needed these at her birthday party. 

Truthfully, I've been eyeing this Funfetti recipe from a cookbook Kent gave me. It's called Baked Occasions and on the cover is a tiered Funfetti cake. It's glorious as a cake, but thought cupcakes were a bit more appropriate for a kiddie party. 

I’ve made many homemade vanilla cakes before but wanted to make this recipe for a couple of reasons: 1. They had me at vanilla extract. Have you seen the amount of vanilla called for? That’s right, it’s two TABLESPOONS, not teaspoons, and no I didn’t change that. That’s what these guys use and I was impressed. 2. The frosting is a unique recipe that I’ve never seen before, so I was intrigued. It involved cooking milk, sugar and flour together until it boils, then beating (which cools it down) and adding the butter. It ended up having the consistency and creaminess of the Swiss MeringueFrosting I like so much, but may be a bit easier to work with (although I had my issues with it too…).

The temperamental frosting may have been a bit of human error (not really paying attention to a pot of creamy boiling liquid) as well as a bit of confusion about the temperature of the butter. Nonetheless, I was able to fix my errors and have included how you can avoid making my same mistakes. But if you do make my mistakes, I've given you the answers on how to fix them!