Don't flame me for this, but I have entirely embraced the idea that the best part of special occasions once you have kids is how excited the little people get. Even if that special occasion is Daddy's Birthday. That is how my husband ended up with Williams-Sonoma's Star Wars toothpicks in his birthday cupcakes. It works, too. I think his favorite part of the day yesterday was my kids running out to his car when he got home from work so they could drag him inside to examine their handy work.

The cupcakes themselves, from Always with Butter, were selected with my husband's taste preferences in mind.

Look out, Han!

Since baking with kids requires all my attention, I assembled the ingredients and took a picture so you could see the whole recipe at a glance.

1. The small white bowl contains the first step. You mix 1/4 cup buttermilk with 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.

2. The second step is in the saucepan. You mix 1 stick butter with 1/4 cup cocoa powder and put it over low heat to melt the butter. Mix thoroughly and add 1/2 cup coffee.

3. In the big glass bowl are the dry ingredients: 1 cup each sugar and flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

4. Then everything goes into the flour mixture. First the cocoa mixture, then an egg, then buttermilk mixture and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.

The batter is really wet. I scooped a scant 1/4 cup into each baking cup, then baked at 350F for 20 minutes.

I let the cupcakes cool completely, then frosted with a lazy-girl buttercream. I mixed 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar with 4 tablespoons cut-up butter. I left it on the counter while the cupcakes cooled, so the butter could come to room temperature, then I beat the butter and powdered sugar until it got fluffy. (Be patient. It looks like it won't come together at first, but then it does.) I added a pinch of salt and a dribble of vanilla, then beat some more. Frosted the cupcakes immediately, then refrigerated until cupcake time!

Check out all these crazy cakes. If you scroll down on the linked page, you can see last year's best April Fools cakes!

Silly Cakes

Kim Walker

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