Thomas the Tank Engine Cupcakes

It was my friend’s son’s 3^rd birthday, and he was having a Thomas the Tank Engine themed party at a school gym with lots of kids.  Last year, I made him a devil’s food Yo-Gabba Gabba Brobee cake.

This year, we went with cupcakes as it’s easier to serve to kids. I thought that vanilla cupcakes with sprinkles would be a crowd pleaser.

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Sprinkle Cupcakes

Adapted from here.

Makes 23 cupcakes

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups cake flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup salted butter, room temperature

2 large eggs, room temperature

1/3 cup sour cream

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon vanilla paste

2/3 cup whole milk

Sprinkles

Directions

1.       Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C). Line cupcake pans with liners.

2.       In a bowl, sift together cake flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

3.       Add butter and mix on until you get fine crumbs.

4.       In a small mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, oil, vanilla paste, and vanilla extract, until smooth.

5.       Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and beat until just combined.

6.       Add milk and mix until just combined.  The batter will be liquid. 

7.       Fill cupcake liners just over 1/2 full.

8.       Add sprinkles to each cupcake and give a gentle swirl.

9.       Bake for 12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Before baking.

After baking.

Frostings

I used 2 types of frostings:

Buttercream Frosting – with orange gel colouring

Mix 1 cup of softened salted butter, 4 cups of icing sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, and 2 Tbsp milk until whipped.

Marshmallow Frosting – with blue gel colouring

Stir 1 cup of sugar, 1/3 cup of water, and ¼ tsp of cream of tartar in a small saucepan.  Cook over medium heat until the soft-ball stage.

In a big bowl, whip 2 egg whites and 1 tsp vanilla to a soft peak.  Gradually add the sugar syrup while whipping to stiff peaks (may take 7-10 minutes).

With sprinkles.

Decorations

Thomas flags

Cut out construction paper circles and place Thomas the Tank Engine stickers in the center.

Glue 2 of the circles together with a candy stick in the middle.

Insert flags in the cupcakes after piping frosting.

Verdict:  These cupcake were interesting.  They were not overly sweet, which was nice because it balanced out the sweet frosting.  The kids and parents seemed to enjoy them!

The birthday boy!