Blue Velvet Cupcakes and a Sprinkle Bakes Cookbook GIVEAWAY

I have a winner to announce for Bake No Prisoners first GIVEAWAY! Our winner will receive SprinkleBakes: Dessert Recipes to Inspire Your Inner Artist, by Heather Baird of SprinkleBakes.

The winner is……comment #10!!!!!

Sarah says:

July 16, 2012 at 8:29 pm (UTC -5) Plus, I’m following you on Twitter.

Congratulations, Sarah!! I will contact you shortly for shipping information.

As I sit here writing this post, I am overlooking the peaceful coastline of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. (Mental note: perfect writing location) It is a trip we typically take every year and it normally includes a healthy variety of Mr. BNP’s family. I smile fondly when I think about our family trips to the beach in years past and it fills my heart with joy knowing that I will always have those memories to share in the future. We stay at the same beach front condos that have been in the family for years. We love to lay out under the umbrellas and splash in the sea. We enjoy eating out at the same places like Peaches and their fabulous foot-longs or Sea Captain with their spicy seafood jambalaya. We have to have our liver-mush and biscuits in the morning and pinto beans in the afternoon. And at the end of the week, we always celebrate the hubster’s birthday!

A few weeks before we left for the beach, I had ordered the new cookbook everyone is the baking blogosphere has been talking about lately, Sprinkle Bakes. While flipping through the visually appealing pages of what I can only call a “baking art museum”, I had noticed a blue velvet cupcake recipe that would go perfect for Mr. BNP’s beach birthday! So this year I thought I would be a bit proactive and bring cupcakes to help celebrate the occasion. (I also made a giant birthday cupcake, candle included, that the hubster got to eat for breakfast the day we left for the beach). I am so impressed with this cookbook that I thought I would use it in our first Bake No Prisoners GIVEAWAY!! You will absolutely love the artistic side to all of author/baker Heather Baird’s sweet creations! As well as how easy she makes it with her step by step directions and photos. You definitely won’t want to miss out! (See the bottom of this post for details).

Now on to the cupcakes! These blue velvet cupcakes are very similar to red velvet cupcakes and happen to be my FIL’s (Aka three bite wonder) favorite!

 

These cupcakes were pretty easy to make and their blue hue tied in perfectly for a great beachy feel! Add these to my FIL’s famous homemade vanilla ice cream and you have the perfect summer treat!

Blue Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cake portion:
2 cups sugar
½ pound (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
3 ounces liquid blue food coloring
1 small dab of violet gel food coloring
2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar
Frosting:
1 pound cream cheese, softened
2 sticks butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons white chocolate ganache (my special touch!)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare cupcake pan(s) with paper liners.

2. Cake:In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter, mix until light and fluffy. Add the eggs 1 at a time and mix well after each addition. Mix cocoa and food coloring together to form a paste, and then add to sugar mixture; mix well. Sift together flour and salt. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla. In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture.

3. Pour batter into cupcake papers. Batter will be thick! Bake for 25–30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

4. Frosting: In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter, ganache and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy. Frost the cupcakes with a butter knife or pipe it on with a big star tip. Embellish as desired.

Recipe by Sprinkle Bakes.

How to Enter the Sprinkle Bakes Cookbook GIVEAWAY

To enter this giveaway, just answer the following question in the comments section of this post:

“What’s your favorite summer treat?”

Additional (Optional) Entries

To up your chances of winning, you can receive up to THREE additional entries to win by doing the following (these are optional, not required):

1. Become a fan of Bake No Prisoners  on Facebook. Come back and let me know you became a fan in an additional comment.

2. Share Bake No Prisoners on Facebook on your personal page and let me know you did in an additional comment.

3. Follow @BakeNoPrisoners on Twitter. Come back and let me know you’ve followed in an additional comment.

The Fine Print

Restrictions: Winner must have a U.S. shipping address.

Deadline: Friday, July 20, 2012 at 11:59pm EST. **Contest has now ended.

Winner: The winner will be chosen at random using Random.org and announced at the top of this post. The winner will also be notified via email; if the winner does not respond within 48 hours, another winner will be selected.

GOOD LUCK!!

94 thoughts on “Blue Velvet Cupcakes and a Sprinkle Bakes Cookbook GIVEAWAY

  1. I have shared your websites and my recommendations on Facebook! Many of my friends have checked out your website!
    You rock!

  2. “What’s your favorite summer treat?”
    My favorite summer treat would have to be just-baked brownies, with ice cream. :3

  3. HERE IN THE SOUTH, ICY, COLD WATERMELON IS ONE OF OUR FAVORITE SUMMER TREATS! PLEASE ENTER ME TO WIN!

  4. My favorite summer treat is an “Apple Ugly.” It’s basically a ridiculously good apple fritter, but the bakery that makes them is only open March – November and 2 hours away from me so I only get it when we go on surfing weekend trips.

  5. I AM ALSO A FOLLOWER ON PINTEREST IF THIS COUNTS. I DO NOT HAVE A TWITTER ACCOUNT. PLEASE ENTER ME TO WIN!

  6. I think you forgot to add “white chocolate ganache” in step 4 for the frosting.
    My favorite summer treat is shaved ice aka snow cones! ^_^

  7. It’s hard to pick just one favorite so I’ll say one of my favorites is Friendly’s Watermelon Roll – I always look forward to it :)

  8. I would’ve said ice cream a couple months ago, but recently took a trip to Mississippi, and now my favorite summer treat would have to be SNOWBALLS, or as we would call them in Illinois shaved ice, but snowballs is a much cooler name! :) I LOVE SPRINKLEBAKES!!!

  9. My favorite summer treat is a homemade smoothie consisting of frozen watermelon, frozen strawberries, a dash of lemon or lime juice, a spoonful of sugar, and some ginger ale! It’s SO refreshing!!

  10. Ice cream!! Any type, and flavor, any form of it… it is the absolutely PERFECT summer treat and my favorite!

  11. My favorite summer treat is chocolate cheesecake (tho, that’s also my favorite treat ANY time of the year) LOL

    Sprinkle Bakes cookbook = awesome! Thank you for this giveaway opportunity!

  12. My favorite summer treat is shave ice (strawberry guava to be specific) with ice cream in the center. Partially because if I’m eating it, I’m most likely in Hawaii!

  13. Watermelon Agua Fresca.
    Chillled quinoa salads and pureed veggie soups.
    Ice cream, blueberries & watermelon.

  14. I must agree with Michelle! My favorite summer treat is cold watermelon… especially on the beach after a good swim!

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