Today is my son's 2nd birthday, so my husband and I decided to make his birthday cake a dinosaur...and we decided to make it easy by making it out of cupcakes! Historically, we have had trouble with a basic vanilla cupcake recipe. Any other cupcake variety or muffin is perfect, but for some reason when we make vanilla cupcakes, they explode in the oven and ooze everywhere. We have literally tired recipes from cupcake books (Hello Cupcake), Martha Stewart, Billy's and Magnolia Bakeries here in NYC, etc. They all turn out the same. I do have my suspicions that it has something to do with our no-name, cruddy oven that came with the apartment, because frankly we didn't have these troubles before moving here 2 1/2 years ago...but that doesn't matter because this is the oven I have to use to make my son's birthday cupcakes! So. One last try for a different recipe...I came across this website (http://annies-eats.com/) and decided her recipe looked good because it is a thick batter. I only slightly adapted it (omitted the vanilla bean), but it basically remains hers. The result? Better. Still a few sugar clumps that burst near the top, but really masses better than our previous attempts. And once we iced them, perfect! I think I will be sticking with this one, thanks Annie!
Vanilla Cupcakes
3 cups cake flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
16 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1¼ cups buttermilk, at room temperature
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners. Set aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk together and set aside. Add the butter to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed for 2 minutes, until light and creamy in color. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for one more minute.
Add the sugar to the butter mixture, ¼ cup at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition. Mix in the eggs one at a time until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Combine the buttermilk and the vanilla extract in a liquid measuring cup. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients alternately with the wet ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients and mixing just until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix for 15 seconds longer.
Divide the batter between the prepared paper liners, filling each about 2/3 of the way full (you will likely have batter left over after filling 24 wells.) Bake 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pans 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Replace paper liners and bake remaining batter if desired.
Frost cooled cupcakes as desired (Buttercream Icing recipe here).
1 tbsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
16 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1¼ cups buttermilk, at room temperature
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners. Set aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk together and set aside. Add the butter to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed for 2 minutes, until light and creamy in color. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for one more minute.
Add the sugar to the butter mixture, ¼ cup at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition. Mix in the eggs one at a time until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Combine the buttermilk and the vanilla extract in a liquid measuring cup. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients alternately with the wet ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients and mixing just until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix for 15 seconds longer.
Divide the batter between the prepared paper liners, filling each about 2/3 of the way full (you will likely have batter left over after filling 24 wells.) Bake 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pans 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Replace paper liners and bake remaining batter if desired.
Frost cooled cupcakes as desired (Buttercream Icing recipe here).
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