Yesterday was littlest’s birthday. I cannot believe we are already celebrating his first birthday. The first year with baby is tough. Celebrating a child’s first birthday is more a celebration for the parents having made it through.
Each baby is different. Littlest is our second child. Having my first son, I learned an incredible amount from being a first time parent. A first child has the remarkable ability to turn a new parent’s life upside down. With littlest, I feel like the greatest thing I learned this last year is to enjoy the present. This time around, I have felt more focused on being present in each stage of development. I have come to believe that grace is something of elastic. The more present an individual is, the more grace is able to amplify. Before I go further down this philosophical path, I will change gears to tell you more about these cupcakes.
My littlest man is lucky as he has two cousins within weeks of his age. A couple of weekends ago we celebrated littlest’s 1st birthday early while family was in town. I did not have much time for recipe development so I pulled a go-to vanilla cupcake recipe for the party. They were tasty. I liked the rich vanilla and butter taste, but the cakes turned out denser than I hoped for. I had already had aspirations to try avocado cupcakes as I have heard how tender they are.
Before you say, “Jess, that is crazy. I am not putting avocado in my cake. It belong on my toast or in my guac.”- hear me out. Banana bread is tasty and moist, right. Avocado will make a similarly tender cake. To push the cake into a light and fluffy state, I had a few tricks up my sleeve.
In this recipe, the avocado replaces the butter. Vegetable oil and baking soda are added for further leavening. They also create a moist, airiness in the cakes. This recipe is intended to make 12 regular sized cupcakes. Adjust the recipe for party size.
These cupcakes are awesome with a homemade vanilla buttercream frosting. It was my first attempt at piping frosting so please excuse the slight messiness. The good news I can share with you is you don’t need fancy cake decorating bags to frost cupcake. Just a homemade parchment paper cone will suffice. Next time I will cut a slightly larger opening for piping cupcake frosting.
Yields 12 Cupcakes
Save RecipeIngredients
- 1 avocado
- ⅔ granulated sugar
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ cup flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Cream the sugar into the avocado by hand or using a stand mixer. Mix in the vegetable oil, vanilla extract, milk, and eggs. Blend until smooth.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Slowly add the dry mix into the wet mix. Only mix until the dry ingredients are incorporated.
- Spoon the mix into baking cups. The recipe should make 12 cupcakes. Bake for 22 minutes.
Calories
Fat
Carbs
Protein
Frost the cupcakes as desired. My current favorite buttercream frosting is from blogger Wine & Glue. Cut the recipe in half to pipe frost 12 cupcakes.