It's my daughter Claire's 7th birthday today!

Here are pics from over the years.  The one at the top was when she was about 14 months old.  The second one is when she was two.  The third picture is Mark, Claire and Paul overlooking Lake Michigan from the Children’s museum at Navy Pier, and the next one was when she was 3 at her first dance recital, the next picture is when she was 4 at her second dance recital, Claire and her cousin Rachel at their cousins wedding, summer of 2007, Claire in the bathtub swimming and the last picture was taken summer of 2008 in Lake Michigan.  It’s a school day today, which meant getting up a little earlier, so she could open all her presents.  Her older brother Mark has the chicken pox, so our birthday plans have to be adjusted a little.  We were going to go out for pizza, her older brother Paul has an orchestra concert tonight, the grandmas are meeting us there and we are going out for ice cream.  Mark will have to miss the concert, and we are ordering in pizza.  A few years ago, Claire’s Aunt Joan, her godmother (or gosh momma as we like to call her) gave Claire a cupcake book.  Its more like a deck of cards that has a bunch of fantastic cupcake recipes in them.  They are not that figure friendly, but since its my baby’s birthday, I may splurge a little bit.  I made these cupcakes for her which she helped decorate.Cupcakes:

•  1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sour cream

1. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, banking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the egg, egg yolk and sugar until thickened and lightened, about 2 minutes.
4. On low speed, mix in the oil and vanilla.  Mix in the sour cream and then the flour until the mixture is smooth.
5. Fill each muffin tin with 1/4 cup of the batter. 
6. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until the top is firm and a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool completely before frosting.

I ended up just using store bought icing, but if you have the time you can use this frosting recipe: 

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3-4 tablespoons of milk
• 3 tablespoons of sprinkles, candies, nonpareils, or chopped chocolate

1. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on low speed, beat the butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla together with 3 tablespoons of milk.
2. Add up to one more tablespoon of milk, if needed to form a creamy spreadable frosting.
3. Once the cupcakes have cooled, spread the frosting, add the sprinkles and you are all set!

Happy Birthday Claire Bear!!