The philosophy of dead simple baking, I believe, (even when it comes to something like cupcakes) is not always 100 percent true. Especially if you are making something for the first time.
I believe that every cook is only as good as their best recipe and the ideal way to bake is to work off these recipes to create new ones, one step at a time. So here is a basic starter recipe that never fails, electric oven, gas oven, rain or shine. (For Icings, frostings, ganache and glaze recipes keep scrolling down).
Basic vanilla cupcakes
(Makes approx 14 large cupcakes OR approx 36 mini cupcakes)
Pre-heat your oven to moderate (180 )
125g butter (soft)
125g castor sugar
2 eggs (room temperature)
vanilla essence
150g self raising flour
1/4 cup milk (room temperature)
Grab out a medium mixing bowl. Of course if you have a mix-master you can use this. I tend to use hand held electric beaters, as i feel i have more control with these, especially with things like scraping down the bowl.
Combine the butter and castor sugar in your bowl and beat until thick, creamy and pale. Remember that we all forget to take the butter out of the fridge in advance one time or another. So if your butter is too hard, slice it into thin pieces and place in your oven in a heat proof bowl for 30 seconds-1 minute. Beat immediately with electric beaters til smooth.
Beat in your vanilla essence and one egg at a time. If you feel that your mixture has separated, dont stress, it still is can be salvaged. Add a little of the flour and keep beating til the mixture comes together.
There are a few reasons why the mixture can curdle:
-Generally its because your ingredients are too cold.
-It also could be that you havent beaten your butter and sugar together throroughly enough and the mixture is finding it hard to absorb the eggs.
-Always remember to add the eggs one at a time so the mixture can take the liquid adequately.
When you have a fluffy soft mixture, add half of the flour, (mixing with a wooden spoon), then add half of the milk.
Add remaining flour and milk and beat til you have a thick mixture.
Grab out your cupcake tray.
Check out cupcake cases (patty pans) on ebay. It tends to be cheaper and you can get a larger variety of colours and designs without having to go out to a speciality shop to buy them.
Fill your cases 3/4 full with mixture for an equal and clean rising. Filling mini cupcakes cases can be a messy nightmare and the mixture can be hard to get even. I suggest using a large piping large fitted with a large round nozzle. Again fill 3/4 full using the piping bag.
Place into your oven for 15-20 minutes for large cupcakes and 10-12 minutes for mini cupcakes.
Leave to cool. See below for icings and frostings.
Converting vanilla to chocolate
There are many chocolate cupcake recipes. Some using coffee and cocoa powder and some using chocolate itself. For cupcakes, I think because of the usual vast quantity of frosting, the cake should be light and fluffy in comparison, just to even it out.
So keeping this in mind I've converted the above recipe into a chocolate cupcake recipe, using only cocoa powder. You can do this with any recipe by replacing approximately ten percent of the flour quantity with cocoa powder. The converted recipe is as follows:
125g butter
125g castor sugar
vanilla essence
2 eggs
115g self raising flour
1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 cup milk
Following preparation as above recipe and distribute into cupcake cases. The baking time will be the same for this recipe.
Cupcakes for all occasions
Checkout these beautiful simple mini simnel cakes. (follow the above vanilla cupcake recipe as your base).
These raspberry white chocolate cupcakes are rich without being sickly, a must try for anyone who loves cheesecake or raspberries or both!
Chocolate caramel molten cupcakes with caramel glaze
For this recipe you will need:
One quantity of caramel. (remember to leave about 4 tablespoons aside for the glaze)
One quantity of vanilla cupcake mix.
14 squares of milk chocolate (if you are making mini, it will be half a square per cupcake)
One quantity of glaze icing.
Make up your vanilla cupcake mixture. Start by filling your cases with only half the cake batter. Place one square of chocolate into each cupcake and push it down a little. Place one teaspoon (1/2 teaspoon for mini) of caramel on top of the square of chocolate and then fill with remaining cake batter. (Still fill the cases 3/4 full).
Bake for 15-20 minutes for large cupcakes and 12 minutes for mini. Cool.
Add the 4 tablespoons caramel into your icing glaze and pour evenly over cooled cupcakes. Leave to set.
Old fashioned golden syrup vanilla cupcakes
Add 2 tablespoons of golden syrup to 1 quantity buttercream icing.
Recipes to finish your cakes off
Of course we are talking ICING, FROSTING, GANACHE AND GLAZE.
These generous quantities are for 12-14 large cupcakes or 36 mini. But if you feel you want a lighter less full on cupcake just take
Vanilla buttercream
500g butter (soft)
vanilla essence
4 cups icing mixture (you can use icing sugar too, but i dont tend to buy it because it goes lumpy)
Cream butter and vanilla essence til light and fluffy beat in icing sugar gradually til the mixture is thick and smooth.
Vanilla creamcheese buttercream
250g butter (soft)
250g creamcheese (soft)
4 cups icing sugar
vanilla essence
Follow instructions as per plain creamcheese frosting.
Creamcheese frosting
500g creamcheese (soft)
4 cups icing sugar
With creamcheese frosting, I like to use a food processor as it can get jumpy even when at room temperature. (of course you can use electric beaters too) Place the creamcheese and half the icing sugar into your food processor and pulse til combined. Scrape down the bowl including underneath your blade. Pulse a few more times til combined, empty into a large bowl and fold in remaining icing sugar.
Cake glaze
4 cups icing sugar
hot water
Add 1 tablespoon of hot water at a time til you have a runny yet frosty coloured liquid.
Chocolate ganache
500g dark or milk chocolate chips or buttons
500ml pouring cream (full cream only)
Fill a small saucepan with water 2 inchs high. Place a small bowl on top of the saucepan and place on a medium heat. Place chocolate chips into the bowl and stir til melted. Take off the heat and cool for 1 minute.
Pour in cream and stir til thoroughly combined. Place into the fridge to cool and thicken. Stir occasionally until the mixture is thick enough to pipe.
Check out youtube for cool little videos on how to pipe and ice cupcakes. My favourite at the moment is the chocolate ganache rose.
I hope I've been somewhat helpful. Have fun cupcaking! xxx
