The Homemade Hostess Cupcake strikes again!

Last month, I entered my very first bake-off. It was at our church, so the stakes were very, very high. (You know, face-to-face meeting with the Pope, automatic sainthood, that sort of thing...) I decided this called for Homemade Hostess Cupcakes!!!

I've made them before for Valentine's Day and then a gingerbread version at Christmas. If you haven't made them yet, please do. They are time consuming, but so worth it.

They might just transport you cake to the 70's like they did me. :) {Oh, I could play with photo editing all day!}

The bake-off was part of a Celebration of Gratitude at our church; thanking the members of all of the different ministries who volunteer throughout the year. One of the fun aspects of these cupcakes is being able to customize the writing on the tops. (Or, you can go totally retro with the 7-loop squiggle.)

So, on the tops, I wrote gratitude, faith, love and the abbreviation for our church.

The recipe is here. It is long and you will use every bowl in your house...don't say I didn't warn you.

And, when you make the cupcakes, they will sink in the middle. Do not panic. It is OK. Proceed on with the recipe. They'll plump right back up once you pipe in the filling.

I wasn't nervous about the bake-off at all....until I got there and had to put my little cupcakes on the judging table. The cakes and pies and bread puddings, oh my! Butterflies.

As for the results, I'm not tellin'.

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