Wedding Cupcakes (Round 1)

These cupcakes are brought to you by Martha Stewart. While I love my Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book, I really haven't had much success with her recipes. I've been working on a wedding cupcake cake and and the bride chose these buttermilk cupcakes to sample. I was a little hesitant. I followed the recipe perfectly and only substituted table salt for the coarse salt (less of it, of course). I popped them in the oven and before the timer buzzed, I smelled burning. I quickly popped them out of the oven and transferred them to a cooling rack and was thrilled that only two cupcakes burned. These cupcakes were beautiful. They were perfectly round with slight domes and a gorgeous yellow color. After they cooled and I decorated them, I tasted one. It was a little dry (possibly because it was over baked a tad) and flavorless. The flavor was very light and really didn't taste like anything. I decorated them in her colors and I gave them to the bride. While she loved the way they looked, she admitted they weren't what she wanted and we were back to square one again.

Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes
Source: Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

Ingredients:
3 cups cake flour
1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 and 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt (I used 3/4 teaspoon regular salt.)
2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons butter (room temperature)
2 and 1/4 cups sugar
5 whole eggs (room temperature)
3 egg yolks (room temperature)
2 cups buttermilk (room temperature)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line three cupcake tins with 36 cupcake liners. Add vanilla to buttermilk and set aside.

In a bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In another bowl, beat together butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to medium and add whole eggs and egg yolks, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. 

Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and beating until combined after each.

Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake for 18 - 22 minutes, rotating tins halfway through baking.Cool completely on wire racks.