Finally, THE Vanilla Cupcake

You may remember a while ago I was on the hunt for THE vanilla recipe which works well as a cake and cupcakes, well, I finally got it right after a few attempts.  These are wonderful iced or just on their own with a sprinkling of icing sugar or served with cream and berries.  I have made them a few times and they get rave reviews all around.

Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients

125ml sugar
125ml cooking oil
2 extra large eggs
250ml Greek Yogurt
5ml vanilla essence
500ml cake flour
5ml bicarbonate of soda
10ml baking powder
2.5ml salt

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
2. Beat the sugar and oil together.
3. Add the eggs and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.
4. Add the yogurt and vanilla essence.
5. Sift the dry ingredients together and fold into the wet mixture – don’t over mix, a few lumps is fine.
6. Spoon into 18 prepared muffin tins smoothing the top of the mixture.
7. Bake for 15 minutes.  Ice as desired.

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Birthday Cupcakes

Today is my birthday so thought it appropriate to celebrate with some vanilla cupcakes but could not decide between vanilla and chocolate icing so I made both.  I finished these delectable treats off with a sprinkling of glitter.  I have also heard this fun glitter called, pixie dust, fairy dust and crystals.  I am now on the hunt for new colours.  Its amazing how differently it reflects on the vanilla icing versus the chocolate icing – so pretty!

Ingredients

4 egg whites
110g butter
1 cup sugar
¾ cup milk
2 tsp baking powder
1½ cups cake flour
¼ tsp salt

Icing*

250g icing sugar
30ml cocoa powder
50g butter at room temperature
10ml vanilla essence
25ml milk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Beat the egg whites until stiff and set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugar.
4. Add the milk alternating with the dry ingredients.
5. Fold in the egg whites.
6. Divide the mixture into 12 prepared muffins tins and bake for 15 minutes.

Icing*

1. Beat all the ingredients together in a bowl for 3 minutes.
2. Pipe over the cupcakes and sprinkle with glitter.

* If you are making vanilla icing, increase the icing sugar to 300g and omit the cocoa powder.

Tandy’s Cake into Cupcakes

I still wonder if there is a support group for people like me who just cannot resist the urge of turning every cake into cupcakes?  I just really like individual portions plus a cake can get all messy when you slice it.  A friend placed an “order” for more cupcakes and I remember seeing a recipe in Tandy’s book which I have had  for a while now and not having made anything from it yet, set to perusing her recipes, which are in alphabetical order so naturally I got to the cake recipe before the cupcake recipe which reminded me of a Nigella Lawson cake recipe and got stuck thinking this would surely work as cupcakes… Yes, they do! 😀

Tandy’s Cake

Ingredients

125g self raising flour
125g sugar
125g softened butter
2 large eggs
¼ cup milk
1 tsp baking powder
Zest of 1 orange – I omitted this
½ tsp vanilla extract – I used 1 tsp

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Place off of the ingredients in to a bowl and mix together well.
3. Pour into a lined and buttered baking tin alternatively divide the mixture into 12 muffin tins lined with paper cases.
4. Bake for 30 minutes alternatively for 15 minutes in muffin cases.

I made a chocolate icing using 50g butter, 250g icing sugar, 10ml vanilla extract and if memory serves, 30ml cocoa powder and 30ml milk.

Vanilla Cupcakes

I have bookmarked a couple of recipes to try from the first edition of the Baked and Delicious Magazine and first up were the Iced Vanilla Cupcakes.  So on with the new oven while Mom and I got all the ingredients ready to have some fun. Everything was going fine until we got to icing the cupcakes.  We followed the recipe verbatim so we are not sure what went wrong.  You would think it’s the first time we had done this!  It led to what looked like an explosion with the mess and a fit of giggles the entire afternoon.  Mom and I have decided that we won’t be using the icing recipe again though.

Iced Vanilla Cupcakes

taken from Baked and Delicious

Ingredients

125g unsalted butter sofented – we used salted butter
125g caster sugar
2 large eggs beaten
125g self raising flour sifted
2 tbsp milk
1tsp vanilla extract
2tbsp semi skimmed or whole milk
1tsp vanilla extract

Icing

75g unsalted butter softened -we used salted
2tbsp semi skimmed or whole milk
1tsp vanilla extract
225g icing sugar sifted
Raspberries to decorate – we used a little grated chocolate and chocolate drops

Method

1. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and sugar together until they are light and fluffy.
2. Whisk in the beaten eggs, a little at a time, adding a spoonful of the measured flour to prevent the mixture curdling.
3. Use a metal spoon to gently fold in the remaining flour and then add the milk and vanilla extract.
4. Stand the [silicone] cupcake cases in a bun tin or on a large baking tray and divide the mixture equally between them (spoon the mixture into 12 muffin tins lined with paper cases).
5. Bake in an oven preheated to 190°C until well risen and golden.  This will take between 15 and 20 minutes.  Remove and cool on a wire rack.

Icing

1. In a large bowl beat the butter until completely soft.  Tip in the milk and vanilla extract, add half the sifted icing sugar and beat for several minutes.  Add the remaining  sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy  If you are adding food colouring, put it in a drop by drop until you get the desired shade you want.
2. Take a good dolllop of icing onto an angled palette knife and spread it from the top to one side of the cake.
3. Repeat for the other side until the cake is covered in a good layer.
4. Finally, working from the centre outwards, move the palette knife anti-clockwise to create a decorative swirl.  If you don’t achieve perfection, pretty decorations or fresh berries cover a multitude of sins!  Apply straight after icing, before the topping sets.

See there in their last instruction, they are already setting you up for a hard time with their icing.  Maybe that’s why they recommend decorating them?

“THE” Vanilla Cake/Cupcake Recipe

I am on the hunt for “THE” vanilla cake recipe, one that works well as a cake and as cupcakes and just to be Mandy, quick and easy too. 🙂

A recipe that stays fresh for a couple of days, has a soft, moist, spongy crumb.

I will be trying a few variations in the kitchen but if you have “THE” recipe, I would love you to share it with me, please.  I promise to decorate it all pretty with sprinkles and sparkles too. 🙂