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Friday 1 May 2009

Vanilla Cupcakes ~ Sweet & Simple Bakes Monthly Baking Event!

Vanilla Cupcakes


Its springtime and this is my favourite time of the year in England. As I glance out of my window, colours of exploding beautiful blossoms are on view, showing light pinks from my ornamental plum trees, to a deeper pink on my large shrub bush, then white from my pear tree, who could wish for more I ask myself? Another season of awaking brings new life to us once again.


To mark this event of springtime for this month’s bake at ‘Sweet and Simple Bakes Monthly Baking Event’ I selected a recipe to hopefully reflect this in colourful Vanilla Cupcakes. This is an easy bake it’s an all-in-one- method for the sponge. The trick here is to ensure your butter is soft enough to blend in quickly with all the other ingredients. These cupcakes taste wonderful with a buttery vanilla sponge, following a creamy delightful vanilla buttercream topping - just like momma used to make!


Vanilla Cupcakes

Makes 12

Ingredients
175g (6 oz) self-raising flour
1½ level tsp baking powder
175g (6 oz) butter, softened
175g (6 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
3 large eggs
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Buttercream Icing
150g (5 oz) butter, softened
300g (11 oz) icing (confectioners) sugar, sifted
1 tbsp milk
¼ tsp vanilla extract
Edible food colouring(s) of choice, optional
Sprinkle(s) for decoration of choice

You will also require a 12 holed muffin tin lined with 12 paper muffin cases

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/Fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4. Sift the self-raising flour and baking powder into a large bowl, and then add the butter, caster sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla extract. Beat together until mixed, trying not to over mix the mixture. Spoon the mixture equally into the prepared paper cases and bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly pressed. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then turn out to completely cool on a wire rack.

To make the buttercream, beat the butter until soft. Add the icing sugar and stir until it’s just mixed in, then add the milk and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy. Divide into as many bowls as you want different colour(s) and add edible food colouring (you only require a few drops). This is purely optional should you wish to leave out the edible food colouring(s) and keep the buttercream natural. Spread the icing on thickly with a palette knife on top of each cupcake or put the icing into a piping back and make a large swirl on top of each cupcake. Decorate each cupcake with your chosen sprinkle(s).

Top tip for this bake; ensure your butter is soft enough for mixing as this is an all-in-one-method for the sponge mixture. To ensure a feather light sponge, do not over mix the sponge mixture too much.

Lastly, sit back, relax and arm yourself with a cupcake and take a tongue tingling lick of this velvet soft vanilla buttercream, savour, then nibble your way through to the moist vanilla sponge underneath.... mmmmmm....my suggestion of how to eat a good cupcake!

Please do call by Sweet and Simple Bakes and view the round-up of our other bakers. If you fancy joining in our next monthly bake, we would be most delighted to have you bake with us – everyone is welcome!



53 comments:

Mary said...

These cupcakes look so sweet and delicious !

Snooky doodle said...

OH THESE ARE SO CUTE ! jUST ADORABLE. AND THEY MUST BE DELICIOUS TOO.WHAT COULD YOU ASK FOR MORE ? :)

Maria♥ said...

Rosie, your cupcakes are adorable! I had so much fun making them and these are definitely a keeper.

Maria
x

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

What cute cupcakes! I'd love to have one now!

Cheers,

Rosa

Lisa said...

I'm in dire need of a cupcake now and I didn't need one five minutes ago. I'm thinking it should be pink, too. I'd really love to know where this is coming from! :)

Gloria Baker said...

My dear and sweet Rosie your cupcakes are wonderful and delicious as alwaya, are soooo cute!!!! Gloria

Anonymous said...

Your cupcakes are so cute, Rosie! Perfect for Springtime!

Ashwini said...

OMG I would love to have one now..Looks so yum and perfect. Lovely color.

Caroline said...

They're really lovely Rosie - I enjoy frosting cupcakes so much - it's such good fun turning something plain into something as pretty as yours!

Katie said...

Cute. Love the colours

Maria said...

I too adore Spring -- the colors of all the trees and early plants are do beautiful. Your cupcakes are indeed "springy" ... they are too cute to eat!

Uma said...

Thanks for the wonderful recipe Rosie! They came out perfect for me! It's a keeper recipe for sure. You have decorated them soooo pretty. Yum! :)

Illona said...

Hi Rosie,

Great springtime colours. Decorating cupcakes can be therapeutic, can't they? BTW, love your cake plate.

The Blonde Duck said...

How can you not love pink cupcakes?!?

Anonymous said...

Cute and Yummy dear ...

Maggie said...

Lovely cupcakes Rosie. I would definitely enjoy one of these.

Simones Kitchen said...

Those are lovely cupcakes! I so wanted to make them myself this month but time has flown by and ... no cupcakes...:(

Heather said...

Lovely cupcakes, Rosie! I think I would like a pink cupcake, please.

A_and_N said...

This is such a must do! :) They look so cute.

natalia said...

Ciao ! The cupcakes are wonderful and the dish is really great !

Arundathi said...

I loved making these! Thanks so much for a wonderful recipe.

Maria said...

I love the cupcakes, they are so perfect for spring. I also love your cake stand!

Faery said...

These look gorgeous, I'll have to try this recipe too.

The Caked Crusader said...

very pretty little cupcakes. I have that cake stand too - isn't it lovely!?

Sweet Treats by Dani said...

lovely cuppies rosie :)

Donna said...

These look DELICIOUS!!! Glad you're feeling better sweetheart!hughugs

Chef Jeena said...

These look delightful Rosie. :-)

Dhanya Ganesh said...

Looks so sweet and delicious.

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home said...

These look delicious and so cute!

Elyse said...

These cupcakes are just precious!! I love all of the springtime colors that you incorporated!! I remember being so thrilled when spring rolled around when I studied in London. After the winter, it was the most welcome site ever, and I spent all of my time out in the parks and celebrating the beautiful weather :)

The Girl said...

Greetings from over the Humber Bridge!

Had great fun making these - especially making different coloured icing and playing with angelica, hundreds and thousands and silver balls, I keep finding them everywhere when I got a little over-vigourous with my shaking!

Looking forward to trying out the next bake.

La Bella Cooks said...

I love all the pastel frosting. These are too yummy!!

Bunny said...

They are so lovely!!

Ingrid_3Bs said...

This look perfect! Simple and sweet!

Are you feeling better then, Rosie? Hope so!
~ingrid

Cakelaw said...

These are so pretty Rosie!

Sally said...

Very beautiful. Award time for you on my blog. Love Sally. xx

Cookie said...

I love cupcake, and I love your easy to follow recipe!

Thanks!

Katiecakes said...

Awh, they look so sweet. What beautiful little cupcakes :)

Katie xox

JillyB said...

Rosie, these are beautiful!

Abitofafoodie said...

Such pretty cupcakes, Rosie. They look so tempting!

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

Such pretty colours too, very fitting with your theme here Rosie.

Samdisha said...

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Rose said...

Such pretty colours your cupcakes are. I love the cupcake stand too, i havent seen one like that before.

aforkfulofspaghetti said...

What a cute picture! Fancy making some to order... ;-)

♥Rosie♥ said...

Thank you my 'dear' friends for calling by and also for all your very kind words. I am sorry I haven't called by your blogs for a little while due to once again the dreaded back condition! Rest assured I will be viewing all your wonderful creations in the next day or two :0)

Sally thank you so very much I am touched you should think of me!

Best wishes Rosie x

novia said...

hi rosie ..
i am trying to join this month event. i did baked the cupcakes but my son got sick just about i started to make the frosting. uhu ...
please visit http://ulangtahunanakku.blogspot.com
thank you for the simplest and yummy cupcake recipe. i mean it.

novia
indonesia

Planet Gift Baskets said...

These look perfect for our pool party this weekend with my daughter's friends. Thank you for posting this recipe. I'm going to make these right away.

Affordable homes said...

Love your blog.. so wonderful

♥Rosie♥ said...

Hi Nova I have called by your blog and left you some comments :0) Thanks for baking the cupcakes!

Hi Planet Gift Baskets, these would be perfect for a pool party! I wish I was there to I'd have brought some cupcakes with me ;0)

Hi Affordable homes, awe thank you SO much - you are so very kind.

I do hope you will all call by again soon and see what I've been baking!

Rosie x

Rachel said...

Hi Rosie, your cupcakes look divine! i plan to bake these for my son's 2nd birthday next month.
do you think i can bake the cupcakes and make the buttercream on thursday, then ice them on friday and serve them for the party on saturday noon?
will the buttercream melt in our summer weather?
also how much cocoa powder/dark choc should i put in if i want a chocolate cupcake?
many thanks in advance for your advice.

cheers,
rachel

♥Rosie♥ said...

Hi Rachel, these cupcakes are a lovely choice for an occasion and I must wish your son a 2nd Happy Birthday for next month – what a lovely age :0)

You could bake these cupcakes before icing them, and freeze them, which is perfectly fine and let them thaw gently before you need them and ice the tops. You could add 100g (4 oz) chocolate chips to this recipe or reduce the flour by 25g (1 oz) and add cocoa powder for a chocolate sponge. The trick to this all in one method is that you will need your butter to be very soft to work. The buttercream is very quick to make and I would personally make the buttercream on Friday when icings them. They should keep fine for the next day.

I have a link for my previous blog where I did the same when baking some cupcakes for a wedding where I iced the cupcakes the previous day and they were fine.

http://rosiebakesapeaceofcake.blogspot.com/2008/06/cupcakes-galore-for-wedding.html

Best wishes Rosie x

Rachel said...

thanks for your suggestions rosie.

would the cakes still be soft and fluffy if i freeze them and thaw when needed?

do i need to keep the iced cupcakes in the fridge the night before or can i just leave it on the table as i don't think my fridge is big enough to fit all cupcakes?

many thanks,
rachel

♥Rosie♥ said...

Hi Rachel,
I cannot see any reason for the cupcakes losing their softness after freezing. I have frozen sponge layers before and they have thawed and tasted just as good as a fresh baked sponge.

Personally, I would not recommend putting the cakes in the fridge if possible after icing them, but ensuring they are covered over well with something without touching the buttercream and stored in a cool place.

Best wishes Rosie x