This Cupcake Tower eliminates waiting turns for pieces to be cut from the birthday cake, especially at a high-energy children’s party. Our favorite technique is to call it a “Cupcake Mountain” for kids; each kid gets a cupcake and the “mountain” gets squeals of excitement when it appears, frosted, decorated with cand and colored sprinkles, and blazing with candles.
The recipe is an easy yellow cake and includes a delicious chocolate butter cream frosting but use any type of frosting you wish (as we did in this photo).
Preheat the oven to 350º F. Prepare muffin tins with liners. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla. Fork-sift dry ingredients together and add alternately with milk to the creamed ingredients until well mixed. Fill 15 liners 2/3 full. Bake about 20 minutes or until cupcakes are brown on top and test done with a toothpick.
Cool and frost with Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting. When the frosting is dry, arrange cupcakes in 3 or 4 tiers, building a pyramid that is a cake of cupcakes. Begin with 7 cupcakes arranged in a circle on the bottom. Scatter this layer with M&Ms. Then add a tier of 4, then 3, then 1. Scatter M&Ms and sprinkles to decorate. When serving, keep a knife handy to respread any frosting that sticks to the bottom of the liners.
Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting
Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Add butter and stir until blended. Pour into a mixing bowl. Beat in confectioners’ sugar and salt alternately with a few drops of milk at a time until frosting reaches the proper consistency. Beat in vanilla.
