Happy Friday! So excited the weekend has arrived. We are doing a bit of everything this weekend – celebrating MJ’s birthday, traveling, attending a wedding (yeah for C & B!!), having a taco bar party with friends for the Super Bowl. Sounds like we might need some time to rest from our jam-packed weekend….
On to the sweetness.
In Part 1, I explained the first of the two cupcakes we served at our party. Here are the details for the second half.
These cupcakes are a vanilla cupcake by the same creators of my beloved chocolate ones, the masters of the Magnolia Bakery. What can I say? They create good stuff. The only shortcoming of these sweet things is that they aren’t chocolate. :) Other than that, they are wonderful. Light, fluffy and very vanilla.
I topped them with a complimentary Vanilla Buttercream frosting, also by the bakery. This frosting could be eaten directly from the bowl. All of it. Every. Last. Drop.
Vanilla Cupcakes
recipe from Magnolia Bakery
1½ cups self-rising flour
1¼ cups all purpose flour
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
Line 2 12-cup capacity muffin tins with cupcake papers.
Combine the flours together in a small bowl and set aside.
In a bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add in the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add the eggs in, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add in the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended.
Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, only filling them about 3/4 full. These babies rise so try not to overfill.
Bake at 350°, for 17-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
Allow the cupcakes to cool in the tins for 15 minutes. Then remove them from the muffin tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.
I’ve made my fair share (and maybe a few other people’s shares) of cupcake/cake frosting before. This one is perfection.
Vanilla Buttercream
recipe from Magnolia Bakery
2 sticks butter, softened
6 to 8 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
Cream the butter alone in the bowl of a mixer.
Add 4 cups of powdered sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On medium speed, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, making sure to beat it well (about 2 minutes) after each addition, until the icing is thick enough to be a good spreading consistency. You might not need to add all of the sugar.
Use and store the icing at room temperature because the icing will set if it is chilled.
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To add some drama to this cupcake, I employed a technique I remember from a kid’s cake decorating “college” class I took as a youngster.
First, prep a decorator bag with a star tip. Fill a second decorator bag, topped with a smallish decorator tip, with a colored frosting and use it to make lines of colored frosting inside the first decorating bag. It’s weird and a little challenging but it doesn’t have to be perfect so don’t sweat it.
Then fill the rest of the bag with other frosting. You could use more than two colors. Just look at Pinterest for inspiration.
Pipe onto cupcakes. Admire work. Then consume.
Have a great weekend.
Take care
These cupcakes look delicious! I’m going to have to try this recipe!!