So, in my desperation to not EAT sweets right now, I'm simply going to blog about them! I love to bake, absolutely love it. I have such a tender heart, and I'm a southerner, so the best way I can ever think of to show the people around me that I care is to make them treats. It's something you can't avoid. If I love you, I've baked you things or canned you something or have insisted you come over for dinner. When folks catch on and ask me to make something for this occasion or that, I absolutely light up. Let me love you!
With that said, I'm definitely no fancy baker. I can't make things look amazing like you bought them somewhere expensive, but I do love baking, so I figure that whatever I lack in cuteness, I make up for with love.
This recipe is, hands down, the crowd pleaser when it comes to cupcake baking in my life. It is the best vanilla cupcake recipe I have ever found, and nothing tastes like these cupcakes. They're pretty versatile too, so you can experiment with flavors and colors all you want. I've made them for holidays, showers, birthdays, just because. You name it, I've made them for it! The best part is seeing them disappear one by one from the plate! A true dish must be judged by how much you're required to take home of it when all is said and done. I happily say, I've yet to take even one of these home (unless hubby has hidden one in desperation to keep them).
Best Vanilla Cupcakes
Makes 12
Cake mix
1 1/2 tsp of baking powder
2 large eggs
3/4 cup of white sugar
1 stick of unsalted butter
1/2 cup of milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
Frosting
2 sticks of unsalted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 heaping tsp vanilla
Cupcakes:
Preheat Oven to 350 degrees. Allow butter to soften to room temperature. To aid with this process, I take a stick out of the fridge and cut it into chunks or slices before I do anything else and dump it in my mixer bowl to soften while I do other things. While that's getting soft, combine flour, baking powder, and salt together in a separate bowl and whisk well. Set it aside. Now is when I take my time getting everything else ready (so my butter can soften, you know). I line my cupcake pan with liners, measure out my milk, go ahead and dump the sugar into the mixing bowl with the butter, take my eggs out and crack and whisk them together in a small bowl, set out the vanilla, etc. THEN when I can think of nothing else to do, I turn on my mixer and cream the butter and sugar well. Depending on how patient, or impatient, I have been, I might have to turn my mixer on high to make sure the butter and sugar are well creamed. Make sure you take a spatula (NOT one you flip an egg with, but a rubber spatula) and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to get out excess sugar that's tried to get away.
Next add your egg mixture (I usually pour in half, mix, and then pour in the rest and mix again), again the time to make sure all is getting mixed and not sticking to the sides or bottom. Add vanilla.
Finally, it's time to alternate adding the dry ingredients with the milk. A good rule of thumb for baking in general is to begin with the dry and end with the dry. You're going to have way more flour mix than you do milk, so give generous with the dry and sparingly with the wet, stopping to mix each in the batter before adding the other.
Once you've got your batter, this is where you make your decision. Color or no color. The cupcakes pictured are from my SIL's shower, and some are purple (I swear they were more lavender than blue in person!) and some are white. For that purpose, I simply separated the batter and did one without food coloring and the other with a mixture of Wilson's violet and blue. I wanted them to be darker in color, but they weren't so willing. Better luck next time, I suppose!
Lastly, a good rule I follow for filling cupcake liners is a little bit more than halfway, about 3/4's because I like my cupcakes to rise above the paper. I don't know why they taste better to me that way, they just do. I take either a Tablespoon spoon or a cookie dough scoop and fill them up about three scoops each. My goal is to make them all even. If you're making 12, then you should have no batter left over.
Bake them for about 18-20 minutes.
Frosting:
When the cupcakes are cool enough, I cut up two sticks of cold butter and a heaping tsp of vanilla and cream them in my mixer until they are no longer solid. I then add the powdered sugar one cup at a time and mix well until all is combined. Depending on your mood, you can pipe this frosting on or spread it on the cupcake. This frosting is also really easy to color as well.
These are really hard to mess up, and trust me, I've had some doozies when it comes to baking catastrophes, but these I have never messed up. Hope you like them as much as we do.
God Bless!
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