I have a secret hidden desire. I toss it around from time to time and I always end up never quite attempting the impossible: I want to make the best cupcakes in the world. I want them to be light and fluffy, but not dry. I want them to balloon up but not spill over the edge and I want to decorate them with the most perfect frosting and the most beautiful design. In short, I want cupcakes that are better than you could ever find at a grocery store, better than at the bakery.
For me a cupcake is the perfect dessert. It is essentially- a one person present. You don’t have to share it with anyone. You get gobs of frosting and each one can be made unique to a person’s individual preferences. A cupcake is perfect.
As such, while Ashleigh attempts to bake beautiful breads, I’m going on a month long quest to make the perfect cupcake.
I’m going to start with this recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/232944. (The woman after all wrote a whole book on the topic!)
Yet, I also ran across, these interesting other recipes:
Let us know if you try any of these and they are worth testing out during my cupcake quest!
2 comments:
Preheat oven to 350F/175C. Line a muffin tin with paper or tinfoil liners. These cupcakes need liners or their outsides will burn.
3 cups good flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk, plus more if needed
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 sticks butter, softened
1-3/4 cups white sugar
3 large eggs
Beat the butter and sugar together until very pale and fluffy, about four minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating to combine. Add the vanilla, and beat at medium speed at least a minute.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a very large bowl.
Add the butter mixture to it, and then add 1 cup of milk. The batter will be extremely stiff, and some flour may remain at the sides of the bowl. Add more milk by tablespoons and mix quickly and lightly (how much milk depends on your flour) until it's just thicker than regular cake batter, and no exposed flour streaks remain.
Fill paper liners 3/4 full, and bake 18-20 minutes, checking the cupcakes at 18 minutes for doneness. Cool completely before icing.
Makes 32 cupcakes.
Vendetta Buttercream Icing
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp Crisco or other vegetable shortening
2-2/3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened baking cocoa or Dutch process unsweetened cocoa
1/3 cup milk, more or less
Beat butter and shortening until combined.
Whisk together cocoa and powdered sugar in a medium bowl.
Add the powdered mixture to the shortening mixture in parts, alternating with small amounts of the milk, and stop to scrape the sides of the mixing bowl continually. Keep beating together and adding tiny amounts of milk until the icing obtains the spreading consistency you want.
Refrigerate unused icing in a covered container if you have used butter. You can also make an all Crisco icing, which has the dual advantage of being pareve and not requiring refrigeration, but which loses something in translation. Bring to cool room temperature before spreading on cakes.
http://selkiechow.livejournal.com is my food blog, although WTF, I haven't posted in forever and I don't know why. :)
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