For a children's birthday party, I decided to make classic vanilla cupcake with a chocolate frosting. They were a huge hit with the kids, as evidenced below:
The last time that I made vanilla cupcakes, I used the Amy Sedaris recipe. While the flavor was good, I wanted a cupcake that was a little less dense, so I decided to try the Magnolia recipe. I got some help from the cupcake blog (www.cupcakeblog.com), where a scaled down version of the Magnolia recipe was posted.
Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcakes
(12 cupcakes)
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix well.
Sift together the flour, milk, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk to the butter mixture, starting and ending with the flour.
Mix until just combined.
Scoop the batter into a muffin tin lined with paper liners. Bake for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup cocoa powder
~3 cups sifted confectioners sugar
Beat the butter, vanilla, and cocoa powder until smooth. Add the confectioners sugar, 1 cup at a time, to the butter mixture and beat until smooth.
*note about buttercream frostings
One of the reasons why I love to use a buttercream frosting is that you don't have to be exact when it comes to the measurements. While I do use a cup measure to add sugar to the butter, I also "taste test" the frosting to see if the taste is right. It's easy to adjust the sugar or other flavoring to create a frosting that is delicious.
For the past couple of days, I was thinking about how to jazz up a simple vanilla cupcake. Nothing too fancy, but something beyond the regular vanilla or chocolate frosting. Then I thought, strawberries!! It would be a nice, not too sweet topping that wouldn't overpower the delicate vanilla flavor of the cupcake. So tonight I fired up the oven and whipped up a batch of vanilla cupcakes with a strawberry buttercream frosting.
**Unfortunately I ran out of fresh strawberries, but can you imagine how pretty it would have looked with a strawberry quarter and maybe a sprig of mint??
For the cupcakes, I used Amy Sedaris's cupcake recipe. While I like the flavor of the cupcake, it is a little dense. It will make about 18 cupcakes.
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cup milk
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs and the vanilla to the creamed butter, and continue to mix until the eggs are incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure all the eggs and butter have mixed well.
In another bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Slowly add the flour mix and the milk to the egg and butter mixture in alternating batches, starting and ending with the flour mixture.
Mix the batter just until the last of the flour is incorporated. Be sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is well mixed.
Fill each muffin tin about 2/3 full of batter. Bake for about 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
1/4 cup seedless strawberry jam
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 - 4 cups confectioners sugar
In the bowl of the electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, vanilla, salt, and jam. Once the mixture has been well mixed, add in the confectioner's sugar, one cup at a time. As each cup of sugar becomes fully incorporated, continue to add sugar. You can adjust the amount of sugar that you want to add - more sugar if you want the frosting to have a stiffer consistency (for piping onto cupcakes), or less sugar if you want the frosting to be less stiff (for spreading onto cupcakes with a spatula).
This recipe is actually pretty versatile, because you can adjust the amount of strawberry jam according to taste. It's almost impossible to mess up this frosting!
