Easter Cupcakes!

 

Vanilla Cupcake:

• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 1/4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cups cake flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line one 12-cup cupcake tin with paper liners. (To avoid cupcakes sticking if they overflow slightly, lightly spray the tops of the pans.) Put tins on a baking sheet. Set aside.
Process sugar and butter in a mixer until very creamy, scraping sides as needed, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the egg and yolk, one at a time, pulsing after each addition. Add the milk, water, and vanilla and process to blend.
Whisk both flours, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Add the dry ingredients, in 3 batches to the wet, pulsing, and then scraping batter off the sides of the processor as needed after each addition. Process until the batter is very smooth and pourable like pancake batter, about 2 minutes.
Evenly pour the batter into the prepared cups, filling them 3/4 of the way full. Bake until the cakes are just firm and spring back when gently pressed, and the tops are golden, 18 to 25 minutes. Cool slightly in tin, and turn out of tin when cool enough to handle. Cool cupcakes completely on a rack before frosting.
Yield: 12 cupcakes
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Inactive Prep Time: 30 minutes

**Recipe found at http://leboldusfoods.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.htmlhttp://leboldusfoods.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.htmlhttp://leboldusfoods.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html

Comments: This is a perfect frosting recipe when making pretty little cupcakes. If desired, just add 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder to the frosting mixture to make chocolate buttercream frosting or for cute and fun cupcakes, tint the frosting with food coloring (I recommend the paste type of food coloring) and sprinkle tops with colored sugar or jimmies.

Ingredients: 8 tablespoons (1 stick/4 oz./113g) butter, at room temperature 3 cups confectioners' (icing) sugar, sifted 3 to 5 tablespoons milk 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Food coloring, if tinting frosting Additions: 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (if making Chocolate Buttercream Frosting)

Instructions: 1. Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and add the confectioners' sugar, 3 tablespoons of the milk, and the vanilla. 2. Blend with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 1 minute more. Add up to 1 tablespoon more milk if the frosting seems too stiff. Makes 2 1/2 cups, enough to frost 24 cupcakes. **Recipe found at: http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipes.recipeListing/filter/dianas/recipeID/3315/Recipe.cfm

If you have been following my recent blogs you would know that we have had our troubles in the past. Fortunately, making cupcakes gave us no troubles and we were able to make some tasty baking. The thing that I would change is not how we made the cupcakes but the icing. I would have added s bit more milk because this icing was pretty dense and hard to spread. When measuring in baking it is really important that you always have to correct amount of flour and oil. Too much flour and they will be dry and fall apart but to little they won't cook or just won't rise. We did measure correctly though and they turned out delicious!