HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BEST BLOG FRIEND NICOLE!!!!
You guys know how insanely obsessed with birthdays I am, right? I jump on any chance to celebrate, and I consider birthdays the day you celebrate that people you love are in your life. My normal birthday message goes something like “Happy birthday! I’m glad you were born!”
So okay, it might sounds a little silly and cheesy, but how often to we actually tell people we love that we’re glad they’ve in our lives? It’s nice to have a day where we’re reminded. Or maybe I’m just sentimental…
The beginning of April is crazy birthday time! Within a week, Steve, Nicole and her husband Lance all have their birthdays. I’m the odd man out, but that’s probably a good thing, because I have a total sharing problem when it comes to my birthday. I reallllllly like attention (in case you haven’t figured that one out yet), and I don’t want to share my thunder with anyone.
Once my dad told me he was dating someone with the same birthday as me. He thought I would think this was “cool”. I told him he should probably break it off. Some people are bad at sharing books and m&ms (I love you Heath), I’m bad at sharing birthdays.
So I have some pretty serious character flaws. Sharing, over sharing, and obsessive sprinkle photographing. I’m sorry. I took, like, 100 pictures because…sprinkles, they’re sooooo pretty. It was one of those magic days where I loved shooting from every angle, and of course, I wanted to share every single one of them with you because God forbid I leave out the one that looks the same, but it slightly closer up. I don’t know what my problem is.
That’s why I made the little collage. I figured it would make this post, maybe not 500 years long. Some people just post, like 2 pictures, say a few words, and then post a recipe, but I have SO MANY things to say and OMG SO MANY things to show you!
Oh, and I guess I should talk about the cake mix, eh? To put it concisely (because lord knows I’ve talked enough in this post), I can’t believe I ever bought a boxed cake mix! This was so much easier than driving to the store! I know sometimes we like to have a little bit of cake mix on hand for when other recipes call for it–well friends, you just put some together, and have it ready in the pantry. It’s so easy. And when I baked it into cupcakes, all I did was mix everything together in one bowl (all you have to add is applesauce, almond milk and vanilla!), and my cupcakes were done in NO TIME! Not to mention, they domed up so beautifully!
It was a great excuse to throw some sprinkles around with the birthday girl, and film the latest episode of Drink & Dish! Make sure to check out Nicole’s Boozy Birthday Cake Shake. It is ridiculously, sinfully good.
Easy, homemade, whole grain, vegan funfetti cake mix in less time than it takes to run to the store to buy a box.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup corn starch
- 2 tsp baking powder
- small pinch salt
- 1 1/3 cups Jimmies sprinkles
Instructions
- Whisk all ingredients in together in a large bowl. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Notes
To bake cupcakes, simply add 2/3 cup applesauce, 2 and 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk, and 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract to mix. Stir until combined. Evenly divide the batter between 2 dozen cupcake tins and bake @ 350 until a toothpick in the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. You can also bake into 2 8-9" rounds, or one large sheet cake, just adjust baking times accordingly.
What a fun idea! I am going to try this for sure.
Love that you made your own cake mix! And that you kept it vegan. And that you used sprinkles! Happy Bday to Nicole. I need it to be my bday so I can make this 🙂
well this looks pretty & tasty!!
What a great idea for a gift! Not every likes cooking as much as we do so this is a really unique “edible gift” idea. Sprinkles are fun and the photos are great!
Love all of the photos!! Funfetti is delicious! I wouldn’t want to share my birthday either 😉
FUNfetti! Okay, this is too fun!
I too love birthdays! and looooove to celebrate them and say hey thanks for being here in my life, it’s better than holidays in my book! I never thought of douing a cake mix in a jar…even though I bake cakes from scratch all the time, LOL! Thanks for sharing 🙂
What a great idea – perfect replacement for boxed mixes and easy to have on hand if you make cakes a lot! I don’t like mixes at all – always feels like cheating. 🙂
Yum!! I laughed out loud when I read that you told your dad to ditch the girl he was dating due to competing birthdays. Love it! 🙂
Sadly cannot eat this recipe BUT… I really just came for the food pornographic photos!! Ah ha ha! 😉
YUM! Bookmarking this :). Thanks for sharing!
freakin LOVE this Ari. You are a gal after my own heart. I swear we were separated at birth. Love all the sprinkles!
We need to have one of those reunited moments. We will cry sprinkles of joy when we are finally reunited with our twin at long last 😉
Well now I want to replace the ww flour with oat flour and make my happy self a cake mix.
Doooooooo it!
Thanks for the internet birthday wishes friend!! Sprinkles are the literal best and I really enjoyed getting to make this video with you (and obviously getting to drink/eat tasty things during & after!!)
XOXOXO
such a great idea! and i love that you used whole wheat.
Thanks Katie! I don’t even have white flour in my kitchen. I’m totally flour racist. 🙂
This is such a fun gift idea! And I love the festive sprinkles – perfect for Nicole’s B-day!
Thanks Ashley!
I am never going to live that down.
Well….no, but would it help if I told you I loved you more because of it? 🙂
I am unable to find white whole wheat flour. Sould I just use half all purpose and half regular whole wheat flour?
Can you get whole wheat pastry flour? The would be my second choice, but if not, I’d do 1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour and 3/4 cup white flour. Let me know how it goes 🙂
I am definitely pinning this, sounds very interesting!
Funfetti is one of my absolute favorites! Now I’ll need to whip this up this weekend, thanks Ari!
Such a perfect gift! I see cookie recipes in a jar but never finfetti cake mixes.
Hello there!
😀 I featured your tutorial on my blog so you might receive some traffic here:
http://www.misanthropycreation.com/2013/05/13-adorable-diy-tutorials-roundup.html
Please join my blog hop here:
http://www.misanthropycreation.com/2013/04/my-first-blog-hop.html
xo Michelle
I love this! One quick question, I don’t typically have almond milk on hand, what would be a good replacement? Regular milk?
Thanks!
ps…I am the cake box buying type but no more after this!
Hey there! I found this recipe through Pinterest and was so excited to make it! However, I did it by the recipe and found it to be very very runny. Is this something you ran into? I was able to combat it with some extra flour and whatnot, but yes…very runny. It was still a bit on the wet side rather than the batter side when I put it in the oven, so we’ll see! I’ll give an update once they’re out! We’re using them for my son’s second birthday party tomorrow.
Oh! Also a quick headsup — you didn’t give a temp 😉
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