And we have a winner! After a few different cake recipes, we finally found a cupcake clear winner. The bride originally wanted yellow cupcakes and gave me two recipes that she wanted to try. I made them and wasn't pleased, so I asked her to let me make her my go-to vanilla cupcakes. These vanilla cupcakes never disappoint. They quickly won over the bride and were chosen as the clear winner. These cuties will be decorated with purple and white icing and adorned with white edible pearls and white and purple flowers like this:
Vanilla Cupcakes Source: adapted from Annie's Eats
Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two cupcake pans with cupcake liners.
In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
Beat butter on medium-high speed for 3 minutes (with either a hand mixer or stand mixer), until light and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for an additional minute.
Add the sugar to the butter mixture, 1/4 cup at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in the eggs one, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
Combine buttermilk and vanilla extract in a liquid measuring cup. Beating on low, add the flour mixture, alternating with the buttermilk, and ending with the flour mixture.
Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full (I had enough batter for a half-dozen more cupcakes) Bake 18 - 22 minutes. Allow to cool in the pans a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
My Favorite Vanilla Buttercream 2 sticks butter, room temperature 4 - 6 cups powdered sugar 2 tablespoons vanilla extract 1 - 2 tablespoons water
Cream the butter. Add vanilla and water. Beat well. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time until desired consistency is reached. Beat well.
After I made the Martha Stewart cupcakes, I whipped together a yellow cake recipe I had used as a base for these root beer float cupcakes. Instead of root beer, I substituted buttermilk. The batter was delicious, unlike the batter for these MS cupcakes. I popped them into the oven and waited. When I opened the oven, I found small mishapen cupcakes. They didn't rise very much and looked like little lumpy muffins. I tasted them and while the flavor was much better than the MS cupcakes, they were very dense and kinda dry. I don't know what happened since they came out great with the root beer, so I blame the buttermilk. I sent them along to the bride with the MS cupcakes and being the nice person she is, she said they were delicious. Again I went back to the drawing board and asked her if I could make her my go-to vanilla cupcakes, even though she wanted yellow cupcakes.
Yellow Cupcakes Source: Betty Crocker Big Book of Cupcakes
Ingredients: 2 and 1/3 cups flour 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 sticks butter (room temperature) 1 and 1/2 cups sugar 3 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 2/3 cup buttermilk
Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two cupcake tins with 24 cupcake liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
In another large bowl, beat butter for 30 seconds on medium speed. Gradually add sugar 1/4 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat for two minutes and scrape down the sides of bowl as needed.
Add eggs one at a time and vanilla and beat well.
Reduce speed to low and alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk in three additions, ending with flour and mixing until just blended.
Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake for 20 - 25 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.
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.
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.
I've made these chocolate vegan cupcakes before (which by the way have become my go-to chocolate cupcakes, even beating Hershey's perfectly chocolate cake recipe). I have also made this raspberry buttercream, but I never put them together. What a great flavor combination! I also tried one of my new decorating tips and some pink sugar pearls to make these pretty little cupcakes look like crowns.
I've been asked to make a very special cake: a tiered wedding cake! I've never made a tiered cake before, so I was nervous. Just as I gathered everything I would need to make a sample tiered cake, the bride threw a surprise my way. She asked me to change the tiered wedding cake into a wedding cupcake cake with a tiny cake on top. I was thrilled as I love cupcakes and was full of ideas!
I whipped up this cake as a sample for the bride and groom: carrot cake with cream cheese icing. I decorated it to look like a rose with leaves around the edges and she loved it! We're going to go with a rose theme for the cake and cupcakes and adorn them with accents of purple and white. With a few tweaks, the cake and cupcakes will be perfect, just as I hope her day is and her life with her new husband.
I never make muffins, but recently a ton of muffin recipes have been coming my way. One in particular caught my eye: Chocolate Chip Muffins. I usually stay away from muffins because of my addiction to cupcakes with mile-high frosting on top. A muffin just seems naked to me. But there was something about this recipe that kept me coming back to it. I think it was the addition of buttermilk. I love buttermilk in recipes because it adds an irresistible tang. These muffins tasted like chocolate chip cookies with that familiar tang of buttermilk. I had to give some of them away so I didn't devour them all.
Ingredients: 2 cups flour 1/3 cup sugar plus 1 tablespoon sugar 1/3 cup brown sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 stick butter, melted and cooled 2 large eggs, lightly beaten 2/3 cup buttermilk 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 and 1/4 cups chocolate chips (I used a mix of semi-sweet and white chocolate chips.)
Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a cupcake or muffin tin with 12 paper liners.
Melt butter in microwave for one minute and set aside to cool.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, 1/3 cup sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
In another bowl, stir together the melted butter, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla extract until well blended. Next, make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the liquid mixture into the well. Gently stir until combined and then stir in chocolate chips.
Fill liners about 3/4 full and sprinkle the remaining sugar on top of each muffin. Bake for 17 - 20 minutes and cool muffins completely on a wire rack.
My wonderful husband bought me a new cupcake book recently and quickly requested one of the recipes for his own birthday: Root Beer Float Cupcakes. He loves root beer, so these were perfect. I loved the flavor of these cupcakes, although the root beer flavor was not very strong. I think they tasted more like a strong vanilla. Next time, I'll use root beer extract to pump up the flavor. I topped them with cherries, a straw, and sprinkles to make them a little cuter.
Ingredients: 2 and 1/3 cups flour 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 sticks butter (room temperature) 1 and 1/2 cups sugar 3 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 2/3 cup root beer 24 cherries, 8 straws, and sprinkles (optional)
Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two cupcake tins with 24 cupcake liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
In another large bowl, beat butter for 30 seconds on medium speed. Gradually add sugar 1/4 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat for two minutes and scrape down the sides of bowl as needed.
Add eggs one at a time and vanilla and beat well.
Reduce speed to low and alternately add flour mixture and root beer in three additions, ending with flour and mixing until just blended.
Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake for 20 - 25 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Top cooled cupcakes with root beer icing, cherries, and sprinkles. Snip the straws into three equal pieces and push a straw into each cupcake (if desired).
My husband's coworker is one of my best clients. She has ordered a few cakes from me in the past few months. I love how busy she keeps me. It helps that she's nice, pleasant, and easy to work with! She asked me to make a double-chocolate layer cake (Hershey's recipe) topped with buttercream icing for her two dads' (father and father-in-law's) birthdays. She also asked me to top it with roses, which really aren't one of my specialities. I used some old-school styles that I learned in cake class: shell border, rope border, roses, and leaves. I don't think it came out too bad. The roses looked pretty decent and I loved the color scheme. Maybe old school birthday cakes will make a comeback after all.
